Herman
A masculine name derived from the Germanic elements "heri" (army) and "man" (man).
Name Census estimates that about 43,444 living Americans carry the first name Herman. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Herman today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Herman births was 1921 (3,239 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Herman. 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 Herman with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Herman is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 795 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Herman is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Hermans were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Herman have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
43K
~ 1 in 7,890 Americans
Peak year
1921
3,239 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,641
Tracked since 1880
Census
Herman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 42,826 people with the first name Herman, which placed it at #1,005 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
#1,005
National first-name rank
People counted
43K
42,826 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
14.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Herman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Herman is White at 46.1%. The next largest groups are Black (32.0%) and Hispanic (14.3%). 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 Herman 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 Herman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.1% · 19,747
- Black or African American32.0% · 13,723
- Hispanic or Latino14.3% · 6,113
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 1,625
- Two or more races2.2% · 952
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 666
Gender
Gender distribution for Herman
Out of the 136,709 babies given the name Herman since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Herman as a male name
- Ranked #2,641 in 2024
- 50 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (3,219 births)
Herman as a female name
- Ranked #9,498 in 1980
- 6 female births in 1980
- Peak: 1925 (29 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Herman appears almost entirely male. Of the 42,824 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Herman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Herman from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 29,205 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Herman 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 Herman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hermans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Herman, while Nevada, Wyoming, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,339 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Herman
The name Herman has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old High German words "heri" meaning army and "man" meaning man. It was originally a compound name that translates to "army man" or "warrior." The name can be traced back to the 9th century AD, during the Middle Ages in central and western Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Herman appears in the Annales Fuldenses, a medieval chronicle written in the 9th century, which mentions a Herman who was a count in the Franconian region of present-day Germany. Another early reference is found in the writings of the Venerable Bede, an English monk and scholar from the 7th-8th century, who recorded the name as "Hereman" in his work Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the name Herman was relatively common among German and Dutch nobility and clergy. One notable figure was Herman of Reichenau, a Benedictine monk and scholar who lived from around 1013 to 1054 and was known for his contributions to music theory and astronomy.
In the 16th century, Herman Finck, a German composer and music theorist, was an influential figure in the development of polyphonic music. He was born around 1527 and died in 1588. Around the same time, Herman van Rennenberg, a Dutch noble and military leader, played a significant role in the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, living from 1545 to 1609.
During the 19th century, the name gained popularity in the United States, partly due to the influence of German and Dutch immigrants. One of the most famous Americans with the name was Herman Melville, the author of the classic novel Moby Dick, who was born in 1819 and died in 1891.
Another notable figure was Herman Hollerith, an American statistician and inventor who was born in 1860 and died in 1929. He is credited with developing the first punch card system, which laid the foundation for modern data processing and computing.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Herman
People
Herman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Herman 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
Herman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Herman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 43,444 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Herman 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 7,890 US residents.
Is Herman a common name?
We classify Herman as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 136,709 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Herman most popular?
The single biggest year for Herman was 1921, when 3,239 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Herman is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Herman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 42,826 people with the name Herman, or 14.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,005 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 Herman 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 Herman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Herman appears almost entirely male. Of the 42,824 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Herman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Herman is White at 46.1%. The next largest groups are Black (32.0%) and Hispanic (14.3%). 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 Herman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Herman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.1% (19,747 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 Herman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Herman a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Herman 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 Herman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Herman 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 Herman 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 common is the name Herman?
See how many Americans are named Herman on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.