Herbert
Feminine · “Bright army”
Herbert is given to boys far more often — 228,266 boys against 1,117 girls since 1880. See Herbert as a boy name
The best poet of the name gave his manuscript away with permission to burn it. George Herbert, dying at a country parsonage, sent his poems to a friend with instructions to publish them if he thought they would help any dejected soul, and otherwise to put them in the fire.
How old is the name Herbert?
Herbert first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Herbert alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 400 people named Herbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Herbert most popular?
Herbert peaked in 1929, reaching #1051 nationally. See the whole 1929 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Heribert to Herbert
The story of Herbert
He had been a public orator at Cambridge and a member of parliament, and he gave it up for a parish of a few hundred people in Wiltshire, where he rebuilt the church at his own expense and walked to Salisbury twice a week for the music. The poems were printed within months of his death and never went out of print; they include shaped poems that look on the page like an altar and a pair of wings, and a great many arguments with God that Herbert loses. His prose handbook for country parsons is still readable and still, in places, funny.
Meaning
Bright army
Two Germanic elements: one meaning an army or host, one meaning bright or famous. The second is the same element that closes Albert and Robert and opens Bertha. The compound is the ordinary Germanic kind, in which the two halves make a claim together rather than describing anything in particular.
How the name formed
- Heribert
- Herbert
Related forms: Heribert · Herbert
Pronouncing Herbert
HUR-burt
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The French say it with the weight at the back and no h at all, which is where the Normans got the version they brought to England.
Nicknames for Herbert
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
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 192948 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1051reached in 1929
- Change vs 1982
- 0.0%5 in 1987, from 5
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.
Herbert in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Heribert in German — same name
- Herbert in French — same name
Herberts among us
people named Herbert 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
Herbert 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
- Two short forms in two different centuries of flavor.
- The meaning is concrete and can be given to a child in two words.
- It has been in English use, with one gap, for a thousand years.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- In Britain a herbert is slang for a foolish young man, and the word is still current.
- It is strongly associated with the first half of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Herbert
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Herberts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Herbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Herbert in 2025?
- Herbert is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Herbert with classmates?
- Herbert 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 Herbert? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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