Hershel
Masculine · “little deer”
Hershel is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,329 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Hershel is a little deer in Yiddish — hirsh, a stag — and it was paired with the Hebrew Naftali, whom Jacob calls a hind let loose.
How old is the name Hershel?
Hershel was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Hershel alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 4,200 people named Hershel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hershel most popular?
Hershel peaked in 1932, reaching #391 nationally. Today it ranks #2676, 2,285 places below that high. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hirsh to Hershel
The story of Hershel
Jacob's blessing calls Naftali a hind let loose that gives goodly words, and Yiddish naming paired the Hebrew name with Hirsh, a stag, so a man might carry both. Hershel is the affectionate form. William Herschel discovered Uranus. The name appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
little deer, stag
From the Yiddish hirsh, 'deer' or 'stag', cognate with the German Hirsch, with the diminutive -el. Yiddish naming paired it with the Hebrew Naftali by meaning, since Jacob's blessing calls that tribe a hind. The Yiddish is documented.
How the name formed
- hirsh
- Hirshel
- Hershel
Related forms: הערשל · Hirsch · Herschel
Pronouncing Hershel
HUR-shul
Two syllables, stress on the first. German Hirsch is HEERSH.
Nicknames for Hershel
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
- 1924226 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #391reached in 1932
- Change vs 2022
- +2.1%48 in 2025, from 47
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.
Hershel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- הערשל in Yiddish — transliteration
- Hirsch in German — related form
- Herschel in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Hershels among us
people named Hershel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 35,585 born in 2025 was named Hershel
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 Casimir test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hershel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Casimir climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Casimir's path sketches the road Hershel is walking now.
Hershel sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hershel is headed
Hershel looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Hershel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hershel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That Hebrew and Yiddish names were paired by meaning is a first-rate practice.
- That Jacob's blessing supplies the pairing is a genuinely good detail.
- Hersh and Heshy are two short forms, both in real use.
- It reads as specifically Ashkenazi Jewish.
- Herschel is the commoner spelling for the astronomer.
- It is period-coded to earlier generations.
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Hershel
Masculine · #2676 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hershels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Hershel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hershel in 2025?
- Hershel ranks #2676 among US boy names in 2025, with 48 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hershel?
- About 1 in every 35,585 US boys born in 2025 was named Hershel — 48 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hershel with classmates?
- Hershel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hershel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Isaak#2676 · Zyion#2676 · Kylon#2676 · Pryce#2676 · Davin#2676 · Juancarlos#2676 · Mikhael#2676 · Masyn#2676
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hershel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hershel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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