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The name Hal peaked for girls at #4526 in 1926. Hal is occasionally used for boys in 2025.

The name Hal is a boy's name of German, English, Scandinavian origin meaning "army ruler or estate ruler".

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Could Hal be the Jack, Max, or Gus of the future? It just might happen in the new nickname environment, especially with Cal and Cy feeling cool, and with the interest in vintage, cowboy-esque choices, considering Hal ranked in the US Top 1000 in the first half of the 20th century. 
 Hal is a venerable nickname for Henry, Harry and Harold, famously used by Shakespeare in King Henry IV as the name of the king's son, the future Henry V, A number of show biz figures of a certain era have gone by the name too, including Hals Roach, Wallis, Ashby, Holbrook, David and Linden. In the eponymous film, Jack Black played "Shallow Hal."
 As for the bad-guy machine in "2001: A Space Odyssey," that HAL stood for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer.
 
Actor Hank Azaria put it on his son's birth certificate back in 2009, well-ahead of trend, while a recent year saw it given to around 30 babies: double the number it was being given to back in the 2010s.

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The name Hal peaked for boys at #305 in 1956. The name is most popular in HAL, HAL, and HAL. Hal is occasionally used for girls in 1926.

Year	US rank	Births	Per million
2014	—	0	0
2015	—	0	0
2016	—	0	0
2017	—	0	0
2018	—	0	0
2019	—	0	0
2020	—	0	0
2021	—	0	0
2022	—	0	0
2023	—	0	0
2024	—	0	0
2025	—	0	0

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