Based on the generalized Huygens–Fresnel diffraction integral, a recurrence propagation equation of Hermite-cosine-Gaussian (HcoG) beams through a paraxial optical ABCD system with hard-edge aperture is derived, which permits us to obtain the analytical propagation expression for HcoG beams of any order. Furthermore, the closed-form propagation expressions for the Gaussian, Hermite–Gaussian, cosine (sine)-Gaussian, cosh (sinh) and cosine (sine) beams passing through a paraxial optical ABCD system with hard-edge aperture can be obtained by treating them as special cases of the analytical propagation expression for HcoG beams. The advantages of our analytical results are analyzed, and the applications are illustrated with numerical examples.