Heinrich
A masculine German name deriving from Germanic elements meaning "estate ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 489 living Americans carry the first name Heinrich. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Heinrich today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Heinrich births was 2024 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Heinrich. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
489
~ 1 in 700,929 Americans
Peak year
2024
26 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,104
Tracked since 1956
Popularity
Heinrich: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Heinrich from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 164 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Heinrich remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Heinrich by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Heinrich during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Heinrichs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Heinrich
The name Heinrich has its origins in the Germanic languages, deriving from the Old High German name Heimric, which itself derives from the words "heim" meaning "home" and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler." The name can be traced back to the 8th century CE and was popular among the Franks and other Germanic tribes of that period.
Heinrich gained widespread usage across medieval Europe, particularly in the regions of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was a common name among the nobility and ruling classes, with several notable historical figures bearing the name. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Carolingian dynasty, with Heinrich I (876-936 CE) being a prominent figure as the first East Frankish king.
The name also appears in various religious texts and chronicles from the Middle Ages. For example, Heinrich der Löwe (Henry the Lion, 1129-1195 CE), a member of the House of Welf, was a prominent figure in the Holy Roman Empire and is mentioned in several historical accounts of the time.
Over the centuries, numerous influential individuals have borne the name Heinrich. These include Heinrich VI (1165-1197 CE), a Holy Roman Emperor; Heinrich VII (1275-1313 CE), another Holy Roman Emperor; Heinrich VIII (1486-1539 CE), a German noble and Prince of Lüneburg; and Heinrich VIII (1491-1547 CE), the famous King of England who played a significant role in the English Reformation.
Other notable individuals with the name Heinrich include Heinrich Heine (1797-1856 CE), a German poet and literary critic; Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894 CE), a German physicist who demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic waves; and Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890 CE), a German archaeologist who excavated the site of ancient Troy.
The name Heinrich has a rich historical legacy, reflecting its long-standing popularity among the Germanic peoples and its association with rulers, nobility, and influential figures across various fields throughout the centuries.
People
Heinrich + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Heinrich as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Heinrich: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Heinrich?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 489 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Heinrich going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 700,929 US residents.
Is Heinrich a common name?
We classify Heinrich as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 506 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Heinrich most popular?
The single biggest year for Heinrich was 2024, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Heinrich is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Heinrich a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Heinrich in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.