Strictly speaking, Hirgon's death in the War of the Ring is not established beyond doubt. The Rohirrim discovered a beheaded body holding the Red Arrow in its hand, and presumed that the body belonged to Hirgon. This is by no means unreasonable (it was Hirgon who had brought the Red Arrow to Théoden just days beforehand), but the missing head potentially leaves some small room for uncertainty.

The first element of Hirgon's name seems to derive from hîr, 'lord', but the -gon ending is more obscure. In names that were adapted from Quenya to Sindarin (like Fingon or Turgon), -gon was derived from -káno, 'commander' or 'hero'. Since it is doubtful that this same history applies to Hirgon's name, however, it is hard to say whether the same derivation would apply.

An alternative might connect the name with gon(d), 'stone', reflecting Hirgon's service to Gondor. We might therefore possibly take Hirgon as meaning 'a lord of Gondor'. In this regard, it is perhaps notable that Tolkien at first named this character Dirgon (which by this interpretation can be read as simply 'Man of Gondor').