Word.ws English Dictionary

Hugh

/hjuː/

Hugh proper noun: a male given name from the Germanic languages.

Proper noun

Hugh

  1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.
    • I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Cold's the wind, and wet's the rain, / Saint Hugh be our good speed. / Ill is the weather that bringeth no gain, / Nor helps good hearts in need.1600, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday
  2. (rare compared to given name) A surname originating as a patronymic.

Hugh meaning in Bengali and Persian

Hugh in Bengali

male given name
হিউ hiu

Hugh in Persian

male given name
هوگو hogo

Examples of Hugh in a sentence

  • The exquisite long vowel pleases me―Hugh!1894, W. H. Miller, J. Mcaulauy, W. Stevens, The Leisure Hour, Richard Jones, page 651:
  • Hugh McAnally was universally known as "Wee Shug".1996, Ian Rankin, Let It Bleed, Thorndike Press, published 2000, →ISBN, page 68:
  • Everything but my name, HUGH!" - - - I grew up thinking that I was the only Hugh in the world, and all my life I'll be meeting people who will have trouble pronouncing my name.2011, Hughie Boy Levoy, Chicago Kid, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 151:
  • "To be frank, at first I thought it was a joke," Hugh Hurwitz, who served as acting director of the BOP between May 2018 and August 2019, told the BBC.2025 July 17, Bernd Debusmann Jr, “Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz as a prison - could it happen?”, in BBC:

Origin of Hugh

From the Old French aristocratic and saint's name Hughe, brought to England by Normans, from a short form of Germanic names beginning with Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“heart, mind”), such as Hubert. Cognate with Old English hyġe (“mind, spirit, intellect”). More at high, how.

Words formed from Hugh

Words that rhyme with Hugh

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Hugh

What does Hugh mean?
Hugh means a male given name from the Germanic languages.
What is Hugh in Bengali?
Hugh in Bengali is হিউ (hiu). See Hugh meaning in Bengali.
How do you use Hugh in a sentence?
The exquisite long vowel pleases me―Hugh!
What part of speech is Hugh?
Hugh is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Hugh?
Hugh is pronounced /hjuː/.

Words near Hugh in the dictionary

  1. huggling
  2. huggly
  3. Huggon
  4. Huggs
  5. huggy
  6. Hugh
  7. Hugh's
  8. Hughart
  9. Hugharts
  10. Hughbanks
  11. Hughbankses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hugh (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Hugh.wav.

Cite this entry: “Hugh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hugh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.