Henny
A feminine diminutive of the name Henrietta, of German origin meaning "ruler of the household".
Name Census estimates that about 978 living Americans carry the first name Henny. It is a predominantly female name (94.5% of registrations). The average person named Henny today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Henny births was 2021 (61 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Henny. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Henny with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
978
~ 1 in 350,465 Americans
Peak year
2021
61 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
1930 SSA rank
#2,977
Tracked since 1921
Census
Henny in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,326 people with the first name Henny, which placed it at #10,160 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#10,160
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,326 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Henny
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Henny is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.1%) and Hispanic (9.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Henny described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Henny at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.9% · 914
- Asian and Pacific Islander19.1% · 253
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 122
- Black or African American2.0% · 26
- Two or more races0.8% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Henny
Henny leans heavily female at 94.5% of total registrations, but 58 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Henny as a male name
- Ranked #4,243 in 1930
- 5 male births in 1930
- Peak: 1921 (8 births)
Henny as a female name
- Ranked #2,977 in 2024
- 55 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (61 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Henny leans strongly female. 1,179 people counted with this name were female (88.6%), compared with 151 male bearers (11.4%).
Popularity
Henny: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Henny from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 359 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Henny remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Henny 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 Henny during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hennys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Henny
The name Henny has its origins in the Germanic language family, derived from the root word "hain" meaning "home" or "homestead." It was initially a diminutive form of the masculine name Henrich or Heinrich, which itself is a combination of the elements "heim" (home) and "ric" (ruler or power).
The earliest recorded instances of the name Henny can be traced back to the Middle Ages in various regions of central and northern Europe, where it was commonly used as a nickname or shortened form of the more formal Heinrich. In some areas, it was also a standalone given name in its own right.
One of the earliest notable individuals to bear the name Henny was Henny Pörnbacher, a 14th-century German nobleman and landowner who lived from around 1320 to 1385. Records from that time show him as a prominent figure in the region now known as Bavaria.
In the 16th century, Henny Hülsmann (1501-1573) was a Dutch merchant and trader who played a significant role in the establishment of trade routes between the Netherlands and the Baltic region. His business dealings and travels were well-documented in historical records of the time.
Moving into the 17th century, Henny van Opstal (1622-1688) was a Dutch painter known for her still-life works depicting flowers and other natural elements. Her paintings can be found in various museums and private collections across Europe.
In the field of literature, Henny Marsman (1899-1942) was a Dutch poet and writer who was part of the avant-garde literary movement in the early 20th century. His works, including collections like "Paradijs" and "Tempel en Kruis," explored themes of modernity, existentialism, and the human condition.
More recently, Henny Youngman (1906-1998) was an American comedian and violinist known for his quick-witted, one-liner jokes. He was a popular performer in vaudeville and on early television, and his signature line "Take my wife, please" became a catchphrase.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Henny, which has its roots in the Germanic languages and has been used across various European cultures for centuries.
People
Henny + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Henny 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
Henny: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Henny?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 978 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Henny 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 350,465 US residents.
Is Henny a common name?
We classify Henny as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,048 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Henny most popular?
The single biggest year for Henny was 2021, when 61 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Henny is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Henny in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,326 people with the name Henny, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,160 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Henny in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Henny?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Henny leans strongly female. 1,179 people counted with this name were female (88.6%), compared with 151 male bearers (11.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Henny?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Henny is White at 68.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.1%) and Hispanic (9.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Henny most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Henny in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.9% (914 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Henny in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Henny a female name?
Yes, 94.5% of people registered as Henny in the SSA data are female. 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.
Is Henny still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Henny in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Henny can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people are named Henny?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.