Hershal
Masculine · “Little deer”
Hershal is an American spelling of Hershel, the Yiddish pet form of Hirsh, and it carries one of the best-loved figures in Jewish folk humor: Hershel of Ostropol, a real jester who became the hero of countless stories. Two plain syllables, and an ending English had to invent a vowel for.
How old is the name Hershal?
Hershal first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Hershal alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 200 people named Hershal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hershal most popular?
Hershal peaked in 1918, reaching #1404 nationally. See the whole 1918 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hirsh to Hershal
The story of Hershal
Yiddish makes a diminutive by adding a bare l to a word — shtot, 'town', becomes shtetl, and Hirsh becomes Hershl — and that final l is a syllable with no vowel in it at all. English cannot write a syllable like that, so every English spelling supplies one: Hershel, Herschel, Hershell and, here, Hershal. In the late eighteenth century Hershel of Ostropol served as a jester at the court of Rebbe Boruch of Medzhybizh in Ukraine, and the pranks and one-liners attached to his name grew into a whole cycle of Yiddish folk tales, still retold in children's books today.
Meaning
Little deer, from Yiddish
Hirsh is Yiddish for 'deer', the same word as German Hirsch, and the -l ending makes it a diminutive.
How the name formed
- Hirsh
- Hershl
- Hershel
- Hershal
Related forms: Hershl · Herschel · Hirsch · Tzvi
Pronouncing Hershal
HUR-shul
The final a is unstressed and sounds the same as the e in Hershel.
Nicknames for Hershal
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 192024 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1404reached in 1918
- Change vs 1998
- +20.0%6 in 2004, 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.
Hershal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hershl in Yiddish — same name
- Herschel in English — spelling variant
- Hirsch in German — related form
- Tzvi in Hebrew — related form
Hershals among us
people named Hershal 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
Hershal 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
- A documented meaning, 'little deer', from a living Jewish naming tradition.
- Comes with Hersh as a ready short form.
- Rare enough that a Hershal is unlikely to meet another.
- Hershel is the more familiar spelling, so people who know the name will correct the -al to -el.
- Some children will hear Hershey, the chocolate, in it.
- It has been rare for a long time and reads as an older-generation name in most American settings.
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Hershal
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Hershals 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 Hershal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hershal in 2025?
- Hershal is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hershal with classmates?
- Hershal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Henry#5 · Harold#991 · Harry#775 · Howard#1002 · Hunter#130 · Herbert#2641 · Herman#2363 · Harvey#251
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hershal? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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