MEANING & HISTORY
What does Heidi mean?
Heidi is a Swiss German familiar form of Adelheid. Its longer base contains the Germanic elements noble and kind or character, also found behind Adelaide and Alice.
Tagalog and Cebuano record the name through English, making the immediate borrowing different from its older Germanic root. The children’s book Heidi helped carry the form internationally. The literary connection explains its recognition, while the Adelheid relationship explains its formation; neither means that every Heidi was named after the character.
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Tagalog
- /ˈhajdi/Standard-Tagalog
- [ˈhaɪ̯.d̪ɪ]Standard-Tagalog
Hei · di2 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
TagalogEtymology & source
Borrowed from English Heidi, from Swiss German Heidi, a pet form of Adelheid, equivalent of English Adelaide and Alice.
a female given name from English
CebuanoEtymology & source
Borrowed from English Heidi, from Swiss German Heidi, a pet form of Adelheid, equivalent of English Adelaide and Alice.
a female given name from English
EnglishEtymology & source
From Swiss German Heidi, a pet form of Adelheid, equivalent of English Adelaide and Alice. The name became internationally popular due to the children's book Heidi (1880).
A female given name from the Germanic languages.
EnglishEtymology & source
Borrowed from French Adélaïde, from Old High German Adalheid (from adal (“noble”) + heit (“nature, character”)), modern German Adelheid; doublet of Alice.
A female given name from the Germanic languages.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Middle English Alice, from Old French Alys, Alice, from Old High German Adalheid, proposed to derive from Proto-Germanic *aþalaz (“noble”) + *haiduz (“character”). Doublet of Adelaide.
A female given name from the Germanic languages popular in England since the Middle Ages.
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Heidi
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Heidi Mendoza
Filipino certified public accountant and former United Nations official
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Wikidata
2
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Heidi Ilustre, Heidi Mendoza
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Heidi in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Related forms & spellings
Related forms may have their own language histories. They are not included in this spelling’s PSA count.
Similar names to Heidi
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Henri♂Home and ruler; French form of Henry
- Heart♀English heart: puso
- Heath♂Open heathland; surname-derived name
- Helen♀From Greek Helene, often linked with torch
- Helga♀Holy or sacred
- Henry♂Home ruler
- Herbie·Familiar form of Herbert
- Hermie♂♀Familiar form with several documented Herm-name bases
What rhymes with Heidi?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Heidi further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q1938638 — Heidi (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Heidi Ilustre (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q1938638 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Heidi Mendoza (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q1938638 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Heidi (Tagalog) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Heidi (Cebuano) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Heidi (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Heidi (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary contributors — Heidi (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.