Heike
A feminine name of Japanese origin, meaning "bright, splendid".
Name Census estimates that about 114 living Americans carry the first name Heike. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Heike today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heike births was 1966 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heike. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
114
~ 1 in 3,006,617 Americans
Peak year
1966
15 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1988 SSA rank
#10,832
Tracked since 1961
Census
Heike in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,608 people with the first name Heike, which placed it at #8,872 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,872
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,608 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
96.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heike
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heike is White at 96.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.7%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Heike described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Heike at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.0% · 1,543
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 28
- Two or more races1.3% · 21
- Black or African American0.7% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 5
Popularity
Heike: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heike from the 1960s through to the 1980s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 91 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Heike by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Heike during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Heike
The name Heike has its origins in the German language and culture. It is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Hedwig, which is derived from the Old High German words "hadu" meaning "battle" and "wig" meaning "fight" or "combat." The name Hedwig was popular among the nobility in medieval Germany, and it is believed that the shortened form Heike emerged as a nickname or pet name during this period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Heike can be found in the Nibelungenlied, a famous German epic poem from the 13th century. In this work, a character named Heike is mentioned as a companion of the legendary hero Siegfried. This suggests that the name was already in use by the High Middle Ages in Germany.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Heike. One of the most famous was Heike Monogatari (1150-1223), a Japanese samurai warrior and military commander who led the Taira clan during the Genpei War in the late 12th century. His exploits and eventual downfall were immortalized in the epic Japanese tale known as "The Tale of the Heike."
Another prominent figure with the name Heike was Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926), a Dutch physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913 for his groundbreaking work on the liquefaction of gases and the discovery of superconductivity at extremely low temperatures.
In the realm of literature, Heike Hartmann (1935-2020) was a German writer and poet who explored themes of love, loss, and the human condition in her works. Her poetry collections, such as "Die Lieder der Liebe" (The Songs of Love), earned her critical acclaim and numerous literary awards.
Another notable figure was Heike Becker (1959-2012), a German artist and sculptor known for her large-scale installations and public artworks. Her works often incorporated natural materials and explored the relationship between humanity and the environment.
Heike Drechsler (born 1964) is a former German track and field athlete who won two Olympic gold medals in the long jump and numerous World Championship titles. Her outstanding career and achievements have made her one of the most successful German athletes of all time.
While the name Heike may have origins in medieval Germany, it has since been adopted and used in various cultures and regions around the world, reflecting the rich tapestry of human diversity and the enduring influence of names and their histories.
People
Heike + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heike as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Heike: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heike?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 114 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heike going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,006,617 US residents.
Is Heike a common name?
We classify Heike as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 133 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heike most popular?
The single biggest year for Heike was 1966, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heike is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Heike in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,608 people with the name Heike, or 0.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,872 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Heike in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Heike?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heike appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,604 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Heike?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heike is White at 96.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.7%) and Two or More Races (1.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Heike most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Heike in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.0% (1,543 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Heike in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Heike a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Heike in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Heike still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Heike in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Heike can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Heike?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.