Herbey
A masculine name of French origin, a diminutive form of Hubert meaning "brilliant mind".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Herbey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Herbey today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Herbey births was 2000 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Herbey. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Herbey. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
2000
5 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2000 SSA rank
#11,024
Tracked since 2000
Census
Herbey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 151 people with the first name Herbey, which placed it at #45,179 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
#45,179
National first-name rank
People counted
151
151 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
91.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Herbey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Herbey is Hispanic at 91.4%. The next largest groups are White (4.0%) and Black (4.0%). 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 Herbey 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 Herbey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino91.4% · 138
- White4.0% · 6
- Black or African American4.0% · 6
- Two or more races0.7% · 1
Popularity
Herbey: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Herbey 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 Herbey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Herbey
The given name Herbey is believed to have originated from the Old French language, with roots tracing back to the Frankish and Germanic cultures of Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The name is thought to be derived from the Germanic words "heri," meaning army, and "bald," meaning bold or brave, suggesting a connection to a courageous warrior or military leader.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Herbey can be found in the ancient Frankish chronicles, where it was mentioned as the name of a noble knight who served under the Merovingian dynasty in the 6th century. This suggests that the name held a certain prestige and was associated with the aristocratic classes during that era.
In the 9th century, a monk named Herbey is documented as having authored a treatise on monastic life, indicating that the name was also used within religious orders of the time. This particular Herbey is believed to have lived and worked in the region of modern-day France.
During the Crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries, several notable figures bore the name Herbey. One such individual was Herbey de Montfort, a French nobleman who participated in the Third Crusade and fought alongside King Richard the Lionheart. Another was Herbey of Arles, a renowned knight from Provence who is said to have led a contingent of soldiers in the conquest of Jerusalem.
In the 14th century, a celebrated painter from the Netherlands named Herbey van Eyck gained recognition for his intricate and detailed religious artworks. His most famous work, the Ghent Altarpiece, is considered a masterpiece of Northern Renaissance art and is still on display in the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Ghent, Belgium.
The name Herbey also appeared in English historical records, with one of the earliest known instances being Herbey Fitzwilliam, a nobleman from Lincolnshire who lived during the reign of King Henry II in the late 12th century. Fitzwilliam was a prominent landowner and participated in the Third Crusade alongside King Richard I.
People
Herbey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Herbey 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
Herbey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Herbey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Herbey 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Herbey a common name?
We classify Herbey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Herbey most popular?
The single biggest year for Herbey was 2000, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Herbey is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Herbey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 151 people with the name Herbey, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #45,179 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 Herbey 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 Herbey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Herbey appears almost entirely male. Of the 155 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Herbey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Herbey is Hispanic at 91.4%. The next largest groups are White (4.0%) and Black (4.0%). 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 Herbey most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Herbey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.4% (138 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 Herbey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Herbey a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Herbey 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.
Is Herbey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Herbey 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 Herbey 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 Americans are named Herbey?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Herbey at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.