Heinrich
A masculine German name deriving from Germanic elements meaning "estate ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 489 living Americans carry the first name Heinrich. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Heinrich today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heinrich births was 2024 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heinrich. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Heinrich with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
489
~ 1 in 700,929 Americans
Peak year
2024
26 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,104
Tracked since 1956
Census
Heinrich in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,084 people with the first name Heinrich, which placed it at #11,706 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
#11,706
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,084 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heinrich
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heinrich is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.5%). 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 Heinrich 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 Heinrich at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.4% · 850
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 75
- Two or more races6.5% · 70
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.6% · 61
- Black or African American2.4% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Heinrich: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heinrich from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 164 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Heinrich remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Heinrich 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 Heinrich during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Heinrichs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Heinrich
The name Heinrich has its origins in the Germanic languages, deriving from the Old High German name Heimric, which itself derives from the words "heim" meaning "home" and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler." The name can be traced back to the 8th century CE and was popular among the Franks and other Germanic tribes of that period.
Heinrich gained widespread usage across medieval Europe, particularly in the regions of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was a common name among the nobility and ruling classes, with several notable historical figures bearing the name. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Carolingian dynasty, with Heinrich I (876-936 CE) being a prominent figure as the first East Frankish king.
The name also appears in various religious texts and chronicles from the Middle Ages. For example, Heinrich der Löwe (Henry the Lion, 1129-1195 CE), a member of the House of Welf, was a prominent figure in the Holy Roman Empire and is mentioned in several historical accounts of the time.
Over the centuries, numerous influential individuals have borne the name Heinrich. These include Heinrich VI (1165-1197 CE), a Holy Roman Emperor; Heinrich VII (1275-1313 CE), another Holy Roman Emperor; Heinrich VIII (1486-1539 CE), a German noble and Prince of Lüneburg; and Heinrich VIII (1491-1547 CE), the famous King of England who played a significant role in the English Reformation.
Other notable individuals with the name Heinrich include Heinrich Heine (1797-1856 CE), a German poet and literary critic; Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894 CE), a German physicist who demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic waves; and Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890 CE), a German archaeologist who excavated the site of ancient Troy.
The name Heinrich has a rich historical legacy, reflecting its long-standing popularity among the Germanic peoples and its association with rulers, nobility, and influential figures across various fields throughout the centuries.
People
Heinrich + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heinrich 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
Heinrich: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heinrich?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 489 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heinrich 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 700,929 US residents.
Is Heinrich a common name?
We classify Heinrich as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 506 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heinrich most popular?
The single biggest year for Heinrich was 2024, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heinrich is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Heinrich in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,084 people with the name Heinrich, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,706 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 Heinrich 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 Heinrich?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Heinrich appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,089 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Heinrich?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Heinrich is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.5%). 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 Heinrich most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Heinrich in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.4% (850 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 Heinrich in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Heinrich a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Heinrich in the SSA data are male. 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 Heinrich still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Heinrich 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 Heinrich 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 Heinrich?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.