Hershy
Masculine · “deer”
Hershy is the Yiddish for a little deer — hirsh, a stag — and it pairs with the Hebrew Tzvi by the two-track Ashkenazi naming practice.
How old is the name Hershy?
Hershy first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Hershy is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,100 people named Hershy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hershy most popular?
Hershy peaked in 2025, reaching #1976 nationally. Today it ranks #1976, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hirsch to Hershy
The story of Hershy
Ashkenazi naming ran on two tracks, and the animal pairs are the clearest examples: Tzvi with Hersh, Ze'ev with Wolf, Aryeh with Leib, Dov with Ber. Hershy is Hersh's diminutive and remains common in Hasidic communities. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
deer, stag
From the Yiddish hirsh, 'deer' or 'stag', from the German Hirsch, with a diminutive ending. It is the Yiddish partner of the Hebrew Tzvi, 'gazelle' — Ashkenazi families paired a Hebrew name with a Yiddish one of the same sense. The meaning is undisputed.
How the name formed
- Hirsch
- Hersh
- Hershy
Related forms: הערש · Hirsch · Tzvi
Pronouncing Hershy
HUR-shee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Yiddish Hersh has one.
Nicknames for Hershy
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
- 1978
- Most boys named
- 202577 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1976reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +5.5%77 in 2025, from 73
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.
Hershy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- הערש in Yiddish — transliteration
- Hirsch in German — related form
- Tzvi in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey.
Hershys among us
people named Hershy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 22,183 born in 2025 was named Hershy
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 Filbert test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hershy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Filbert climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Filbert's path sketches the road Hershy is walking now.
Hershy is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Hershy is headed
Hershy looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% 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.
Hershy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hershy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hebrew-Yiddish animal pairing is a genuinely elegant naming system.
- The deer meaning is concrete and transparent.
- Hersh is available as a fuller form.
- A chocolate company carries a near-homophone surname.
- It is closely associated with one community's naming practice.
- As a diminutive on the certificate it carries an informal register.
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What they receive
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Hershy
Masculine · #1976 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hershys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Hershy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hershy in 2025?
- Hershy ranks #1976 among US boy names in 2025, with 77 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hershy?
- About 1 in every 22,183 US boys born in 2025 was named Hershy — 77 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hershy with classmates?
- Hershy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hershy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Winter#1976 · Donte#1976 · Jacobo#1976 · Khyree#1976 · Kru#1976 · Jaleel#1976 · Arrow#1976 · Davon#1976
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hershy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hershy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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