Hernan
Of Spanish origin, a masculine name derived from the Germanic "Heremanus" meaning "great soldier".
Name Census estimates that about 4,960 living Americans carry the first name Hernan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hernan today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hernan births was 1995 (186 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hernan. 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
5.0K
~ 1 in 69,104 Americans
Peak year
1995
186 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,171
Tracked since 1921
Census
Hernan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,832 people with the first name Hernan, which placed it at #2,337 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
#2,337
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,832 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
96.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hernan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hernan is Hispanic at 96.8%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%). 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 Hernan 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 Hernan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino96.8% · 10,482
- White1.6% · 170
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 122
- Black or African American0.4% · 38
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 15
- Two or more races0.0% · 5
Popularity
Hernan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hernan from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,569 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hernan 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 Hernan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hernans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Hernan, while Virginia, Tennessee, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 297 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hernan
The name Hernan originates from the Spanish language and has its roots in the Germanic name Hermann. The name is derived from the elements "heri" meaning army and "man" meaning man, thus translating to "army man" or "warrior".
The name's earliest known use can be traced back to the Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula, where it was a popular choice among the Spanish nobility and aristocracy. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Hernán Cortés, the famous Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century.
In the 12th century, the name appeared in the epic poem "El Cantar de Mio Cid", which recounts the life and adventures of the Castilian knight El Cid. The name was also mentioned in various Spanish literary works and historical records throughout the medieval period.
During the Age of Exploration and the colonization of the Americas, the name Hernan was carried across the Atlantic by Spanish settlers and conquistadors. One notable figure was Hernán Ponce de León, a Spanish explorer who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World and later became the first governor of Puerto Rico.
Another significant bearer of the name was Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, better known as Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of the Aztec Empire in present-day Mexico in the early 16th century. His expedition and eventual defeat of the Aztecs marked a pivotal moment in the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In the 19th century, Hernán Cortés Delgado, a Mexican military officer and politician, played a prominent role in the Mexican War of Independence against Spanish rule. He later served as the President of Mexico from 1824 to 1828.
Throughout history, the name Hernan has been associated with bravery, conquest, and military prowess, reflecting its Germanic roots and the exploits of its most famous bearers.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Hernan
People
Hernan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hernan 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
Hernan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hernan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,960 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hernan 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 69,104 US residents.
Is Hernan a common name?
We classify Hernan as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,155 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hernan most popular?
The single biggest year for Hernan was 1995, when 186 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hernan is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hernan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,832 people with the name Hernan, or 3.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,337 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 Hernan 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 Hernan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hernan appears almost entirely male. Of the 10,838 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 Hernan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hernan is Hispanic at 96.8%. The next largest groups are White (1.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%). 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 Hernan most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Hernan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.8% (10,482 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 Hernan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hernan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hernan 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 Hernan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hernan 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 Hernan 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 are called Hernan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.