Herbert
Masculine · “Bright army”
Herbert is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 228,266 boys against 1,117 girls since 1880. See Herbert as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Herbert alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 65,000 people named Herbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Herbert most popular?
Herbert peaked in 1928, reaching #25 nationally. Today it ranks #2641, 2,616 places below that high. See the whole 1928 chart.
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19305,675 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #25reached in 1928
- Change vs 2022
- −24.6%49 in 2025, from 65
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Maryland.
Herberts among us
people named Herbert are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 34,859 born in 2025 was named Herbert
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Albert test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Herbert's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Albert climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Albert's path sketches the road Herbert is walking now.
Herbert has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Herbert is headed
Herbert should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Herbert beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Herbert in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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
Masculine · #2641 in the U.S.
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 65,000 people named Herbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Herbert in 2025?
- Herbert ranks #2641 among US boy names in 2025, with 49 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Herbert?
- About 1 in every 34,859 US boys born in 2025 was named Herbert — 49 in all.
- Will my child share the name Herbert with classmates?
- Herbert will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Herbert
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keylor#2641 · Kaycee#2641 · Daelyn#2641 · Kato#2641 · Giacomo#2641 · Ely#2641 · Judge#2641 · Coda#2641
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Herbert? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Herbert and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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