Hera
Greek name of the mythological queen of Olympian gods, protector of marriage.
Name Census estimates that about 865 living Americans carry the first name Hera. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hera today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hera births was 2024 (61 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hera. 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 Hera with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
865
~ 1 in 396,248 Americans
Peak year
2024
61 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,776
Tracked since 1970
Census
Hera in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 771 people with the first name Hera, which placed it at #15,039 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
#15,039
National first-name rank
People counted
771
771 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
40.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hera
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hera is White at 40.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (33.5%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Hera 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 Hera at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White40.3% · 311
- Asian and Pacific Islander33.5% · 258
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 91
- Black or African American7.4% · 57
- Two or more races6.4% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Hera: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hera from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 330 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hera 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 Hera during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Heras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Hera, while Washington, Pennsylvania, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hera
The given name Hera has its origins in ancient Greek mythology and religion. It is derived from the Greek word "hera" which means "protectress". The name is closely associated with Hera, the Greek goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth, and one of the most powerful deities in the Greek pantheon.
Hera was the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and the sister and wife of Zeus, the supreme ruler of the Greek gods. She was worshipped extensively throughout ancient Greece, particularly in her major cult centers such as Argos, Samos, and Sparta. The name Hera appears frequently in ancient Greek literature, including Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and in various mythological tales and religious texts.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Hera was Hera of Laconia, a Greek woman who lived in the 6th century BCE and was renowned for her beauty and virtue. In the 4th century BCE, there was a Greek poet named Hera of Rhodes who wrote lyric poetry and was highly regarded in her time.
During the Hellenistic period, a prominent philosopher and mathematician named Hera of Alexandria (fl. 3rd century BCE) made significant contributions to the study of mathematics and was known for her work on conic sections.
In the Byzantine era, Hera of Constantinople (c. 760 – c. 840 CE) was a renowned scholar and theologian who played a crucial role in the Iconoclastic controversy, advocating for the veneration of religious icons.
Another notable figure was Hera of Chios (c. 1120 – c. 1190 CE), a Byzantine poet and scholar who wrote extensively on various subjects, including philosophy, theology, and literature.
While the name Hera has its roots in Greek antiquity, it has been used throughout history in various cultures, often as a tribute to the powerful goddess or as a symbol of strength and protection. The name continues to be used in modern times, carrying with it a rich cultural and historical legacy.
People
Hera + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hera 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
Hera: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hera?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 865 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hera 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 396,248 US residents.
Is Hera a common name?
We classify Hera as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 878 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hera most popular?
The single biggest year for Hera was 2024, when 61 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hera is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hera in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 771 people with the name Hera, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,039 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 Hera 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 Hera?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hera leans strongly female. 753 people counted with this name were female (97.0%), compared with 23 male bearers (3.0%). 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 Hera?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hera is White at 40.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (33.5%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Hera most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hera in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.3% (311 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 Hera in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hera a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hera 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 Hera still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hera 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 Hera 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 have the name Hera?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.