diff --git a/doc/whats_new/v1.1.rst b/doc/whats_new/v1.1.rst
index cd1102b77ed2e..9d5c9ba8ac1ac 100644
--- a/doc/whats_new/v1.1.rst
+++ b/doc/whats_new/v1.1.rst
@@ -143,6 +143,13 @@ Changelog
   and :class:`~sklearn.decomposition.TruncatedSVD`. :pr:`21334` by
   `Thomas Fan`_.
 
+:mod:`sklearn.feature_extraction`
+.................................
+
+- |Fix| :class:`feature_extraction.FeatureHasher` now validates input parameters
+  in `transform` instead of `__init__`. :pr:`21573` by
+  :user:`Hannah Bohle <hhnnhh>` and :user:`Maren Westermann <marenwestermann>`.
+  
 - |API| :func:`decomposition.FastICA` now supports unit variance for whitening.
   The default value of its `whiten` argument will change from `True`
   (which behaves like `'arbitrary-variance'`) to `'unit-variance'` in version 1.3.
diff --git a/sklearn/feature_extraction/_hash.py b/sklearn/feature_extraction/_hash.py
index bd7cb0f371244..d49a55e71417d 100644
--- a/sklearn/feature_extraction/_hash.py
+++ b/sklearn/feature_extraction/_hash.py
@@ -100,8 +100,6 @@ def __init__(
         dtype=np.float64,
         alternate_sign=True,
     ):
-        self._validate_params(n_features, input_type)
-
         self.dtype = dtype
         self.input_type = input_type
         self.n_features = n_features
@@ -164,6 +162,7 @@ def transform(self, raw_X):
         X : sparse matrix of shape (n_samples, n_features)
             Feature matrix, for use with estimators or further transformers.
         """
+        self._validate_params(self.n_features, self.input_type)
         raw_X = iter(raw_X)
         if self.input_type == "dict":
             raw_X = (_iteritems(d) for d in raw_X)
diff --git a/sklearn/feature_extraction/tests/test_feature_hasher.py b/sklearn/feature_extraction/tests/test_feature_hasher.py
index debc65ec925b8..518a6d315e309 100644
--- a/sklearn/feature_extraction/tests/test_feature_hasher.py
+++ b/sklearn/feature_extraction/tests/test_feature_hasher.py
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
 
 
 def test_feature_hasher_dicts():
-    h = FeatureHasher(n_features=16)
-    assert "dict" == h.input_type
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=16)
+    assert "dict" == feature_hasher.input_type
 
     raw_X = [{"foo": "bar", "dada": 42, "tzara": 37}, {"foo": "baz", "gaga": "string1"}]
     X1 = FeatureHasher(n_features=16).transform(raw_X)
@@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ def test_feature_hasher_strings():
 
         it = (x for x in raw_X)  # iterable
 
-        h = FeatureHasher(
+        feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(
             n_features=n_features, input_type="string", alternate_sign=False
         )
-        X = h.transform(it)
+        X = feature_hasher.transform(it)
 
         assert X.shape[0] == len(raw_X)
         assert X.shape[1] == n_features
@@ -74,8 +74,8 @@ def test_feature_hasher_pairs():
         iter(d.items())
         for d in [{"foo": 1, "bar": 2}, {"baz": 3, "quux": 4, "foo": -1}]
     )
-    h = FeatureHasher(n_features=16, input_type="pair")
-    x1, x2 = h.transform(raw_X).toarray()
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=16, input_type="pair")
+    x1, x2 = feature_hasher.transform(raw_X).toarray()
     x1_nz = sorted(np.abs(x1[x1 != 0]))
     x2_nz = sorted(np.abs(x2[x2 != 0]))
     assert [1, 2] == x1_nz
@@ -87,15 +87,15 @@ def test_feature_hasher_pairs_with_string_values():
         iter(d.items())
         for d in [{"foo": 1, "bar": "a"}, {"baz": "abc", "quux": 4, "foo": -1}]
     )
-    h = FeatureHasher(n_features=16, input_type="pair")
-    x1, x2 = h.transform(raw_X).toarray()
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=16, input_type="pair")
+    x1, x2 = feature_hasher.transform(raw_X).toarray()
     x1_nz = sorted(np.abs(x1[x1 != 0]))
     x2_nz = sorted(np.abs(x2[x2 != 0]))
     assert [1, 1] == x1_nz
     assert [1, 1, 4] == x2_nz
 
     raw_X = (iter(d.items()) for d in [{"bax": "abc"}, {"bax": "abc"}])
-    x1, x2 = h.transform(raw_X).toarray()
+    x1, x2 = feature_hasher.transform(raw_X).toarray()
     x1_nz = np.abs(x1[x1 != 0])
     x2_nz = np.abs(x2[x2 != 0])
     assert [1] == x1_nz
@@ -107,29 +107,35 @@ def test_hash_empty_input():
     n_features = 16
     raw_X = [[], (), iter(range(0))]
 
-    h = FeatureHasher(n_features=n_features, input_type="string")
-    X = h.transform(raw_X)
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=n_features, input_type="string")
+    X = feature_hasher.transform(raw_X)
 
     assert_array_equal(X.A, np.zeros((len(raw_X), n_features)))
 
 
 def test_hasher_invalid_input():
+    raw_X = [[], (), iter(range(0))]
+
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(input_type="gobbledygook")
     with pytest.raises(ValueError):
-        FeatureHasher(input_type="gobbledygook")
+        feature_hasher.transform(raw_X)
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=-1)
     with pytest.raises(ValueError):
-        FeatureHasher(n_features=-1)
+        feature_hasher.transform(raw_X)
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=0)
     with pytest.raises(ValueError):
-        FeatureHasher(n_features=0)
+        feature_hasher.transform(raw_X)
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features="ham")
     with pytest.raises(TypeError):
-        FeatureHasher(n_features="ham")
+        feature_hasher.transform(raw_X)
 
-    h = FeatureHasher(n_features=np.uint16(2 ** 6))
+    feature_hasher = FeatureHasher(n_features=np.uint16(2 ** 6))
     with pytest.raises(ValueError):
-        h.transform([])
+        feature_hasher.transform([])
     with pytest.raises(Exception):
-        h.transform([[5.5]])
+        feature_hasher.transform([[5.5]])
     with pytest.raises(Exception):
-        h.transform([[None]])
+        feature_hasher.transform([[None]])
 
 
 def test_hasher_set_params():
diff --git a/sklearn/tests/test_common.py b/sklearn/tests/test_common.py
index 8b0796b2b5dbc..0ebe2af37e7bc 100644
--- a/sklearn/tests/test_common.py
+++ b/sklearn/tests/test_common.py
@@ -424,7 +424,6 @@ def test_transformers_get_feature_names_out(transformer):
 
 VALIDATE_ESTIMATOR_INIT = [
     "ColumnTransformer",
-    "FeatureHasher",
     "FeatureUnion",
     "GridSearchCV",
     "HalvingGridSearchCV",