English. Adopted by the Puritans in the 17^th century as a "virtue name". It originates from the reference in the New Testament [AV] in 1 Corinthians 13:13: "... faith, hope and charity". All of these have been adopted as given names.

There is a significant use found in the 1841 Census of Aberdeenshire.

Note that, where it does occur in older documents in Latin, Spes the normal Latin vocabulary word for "hope" may be used, with appropriate case endings.

Note: the surname Hope was derived separately, from a Middle English dialect word hop(e) for "an enclosed valley" or "an enclosed area of land".