Herma
Feminine
Herma is a word before it is a name: a herm was a square stone pillar with a head on top, and Athens had one outside almost every door in the city.
How old is the name Herma?
Herma first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Herma alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 200 people named Herma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Herma most popular?
Herma peaked in 1889, reaching #839 nationally. See the whole 1889 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Herma
The herms were everywhere: plain stone posts, a carved head of the god at the top, and nothing else except a set of genitals halfway down — protective objects, standing at doorways and crossroads and boundaries, so ordinary that nobody remarked on them. Then one night in the middle of a war, somebody went round Athens and mutilated almost all of them at once. The city treated it as a political conspiracy, held investigations, executed people, and recalled its best general from the fleet to face charges. The expedition he had been leading was destroyed without him. A piece of vandalism against street furniture changed the outcome of a twenty-seven-year war.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a name it is probably a feminine of Herman, a Germanic compound about an army man, or a clipping of Hermione, which is Greek. The two are unrelated. The Greek word herma, a pillar, is a third thing again and is not likely to be the source.
Pronouncing Herma
HUR-muh
Two syllables, stress at the front. Nothing in the spelling is ambiguous.
Nicknames for Herma
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 191832 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #839reached in 1889
- Change vs 1959
- −16.7%5 in 1964, from 6
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.
Hermas among us
people named Herma 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
Herma 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 short, firm and read correctly on sight.
- It is genuinely rare in current use.
- The spelling survives being dictated.
- It will be heard as Erma, Irma or Emma, which are all close by.
- The name belongs entirely to one American era.
- Two unrelated long names could be behind it, so no meaning is safely hers.
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Herma
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Hermas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Herma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Herma in 2025?
- Herma is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Herma with classmates?
- Herma 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 Herma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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