Henri
A French masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "house ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 4,388 living Americans carry the first name Henri. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Henri today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Henri births was 2021 (154 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Henri. 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 Henri with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 78,112 Americans
Peak year
2021
154 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,592
Tracked since 1885
Census
Henri in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,136 people with the first name Henri, which placed it at #3,837 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
#3,837
National first-name rank
People counted
5.1K
5,136 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Henri
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Henri is White at 56.7%. The next largest groups are Black (19.1%) and Hispanic (14.9%). 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 Henri 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 Henri at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.7% · 2,912
- Black or African American19.1% · 982
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 767
- Two or more races5.3% · 272
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 186
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Henri
Henri leans heavily male at 88.8% of total registrations, but 659 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Henri as a male name
- Ranked #1,592 in 2024
- 108 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (149 births)
Henri as a female name
- Ranked #16,130 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (22 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Henri leans strongly male. 4,748 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 383 female bearers (7.5%).
Popularity
Henri: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Henri from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,067 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Henri remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Henri 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 Henri during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Henris live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. California, New York, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Henri, while Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 72 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Henri
The name Henri originates from the French form of the German name Heinrich, which itself derives from the Old German words "heim" meaning home and "ric" meaning power or ruler. It can be traced back to the 11th century in France.
The name gained prominence in medieval France, where it was borne by several French kings, including Henri I (1008-1060), Henri II (1519-1559), and Henri IV (1553-1610), the latter being one of the most celebrated monarchs in French history known for issuing the Edict of Nantes granting religious tolerance.
In the realm of literature, the name appears in works such as the 12th-century epic poem "Perceval, the Story of the Grail" by Chrétien de Troyes, where the character Henri de Laon is mentioned.
Other notable historical figures with the name Henri include Henri de Navarre (1244-1274), a French nobleman and crusader, and Henri Arnault (1718-1784), a French playwright and dramatist.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the 11th-century chronicle "Gesta Normannorum Ducum" by William of Jumièges, which mentions a Norman knight named Henri de Ferrières who participated in the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
In the arts, the name has been borne by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), the renowned French painter and sculptor, and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), the self-taught painter known as "Le Douanier Rousseau."
Other famous Henris throughout history include Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), the French physicist who discovered radioactivity, and Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), the influential French photographer known for his pioneering work in street photography.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Henri
People
Henri + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Henri 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
Henri: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Henri?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,388 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Henri 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 78,112 US residents.
Is Henri a common name?
We classify Henri as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,893 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Henri most popular?
The single biggest year for Henri was 2021, when 154 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Henri is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Henri in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,136 people with the name Henri, or 1.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,837 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 Henri 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 Henri?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Henri leans strongly male. 4,748 people counted with this name were male (92.5%), compared with 383 female bearers (7.5%). 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 Henri?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Henri is White at 56.7%. The next largest groups are Black (19.1%) and Hispanic (14.9%). 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 Henri most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Henri in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.7% (2,912 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 Henri in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Henri a male name?
Yes, 88.8% of people registered as Henri 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 Henri still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Henri 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 Henri 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 people have Henri as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.