Henri
Feminine · “home ruler”
Henri is given to both — 659 girls and 5,328 boys since 1880. See Henri as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Henri is the French spelling of a Germanic name that England has used since the Conquest, and American records treat it as a name of its own rather than as a variant. The English form also names a unit of electricity, which brought with it an argument about its plural that has never been resolved.
How old is the name Henri?
Henri first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Henri alive today was born around 1944, making them about 81 years old. About 300 people named Henri are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Henri most popular?
Henri peaked in 1904, reaching #1486 nationally. See the whole 1904 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Heimirich to Henri
The story of Henri
The unit of electrical inductance is called the henry, after Joseph Henry, an American who discovered self-inductance independently of Faraday and got less credit for it than he was owed. The awkward part is the plural. Units named after people are supposed to take a plain English plural, which would give henrys, but the International Electrotechnical Commission settled on henries, following the ordinary spelling rule for a word ending in a consonant plus y. Both appear in the literature and neither has driven the other out. It is the only SI unit with a contested plural, and it exists because the rule that units are written in lower case and pluralised like nouns collided with the rule that a person's name is not a noun.
Meaning
home ruler
From two Germanic elements, one meaning a home or an estate and one meaning a ruler — so the sense is the master of a household rather than a king, though a great many kings have carried it.
How the name formed
- Heimirich
- Henricus
- Henri
Related forms: Henri · Henry · Heinrich · Enrico · Enrique
Pronouncing Henri
ahn-REE
Two syllables with the stress at the back and no h sounded, which is the French reading. American families often say HEN-ree instead, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Henri
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 194722 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1486reached in 1904
- Change vs 2022
- −37.5%5 in 2024, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Henri in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Henri in French — same name
- Henry in English — same name
- Heinrich in German — same name
- Enrico in Italian — same name
- Enrique in Spanish — same name
Henris among us
people named Henri are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Henri sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a standing name in French rather than an invented spelling.
- The meaning is documented and the descent is unbroken.
- Every major European language has a form of it.
- The French and English readings are completely different, so the name gets two pronunciations.
- Henry and Henrie will both be written for it.
- The record holds this spelling for daughters as well, though almost never.
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Henri
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Henris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Henri are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Henri in 2025?
- Henri is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Henri with classmates?
- Henri will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Helen#461 · Heather#1261 · Hannah#56 · Hazel#21 · Holly#416 · Hailey#104 · Haley#861 · Heidi#340
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Henri? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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