Herma
Of ancient Greek origin, meaning "she of the rock".
Name Census estimates that about 124 living Americans carry the first name Herma. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Herma today is around 82 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Herma births was 1918 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Herma. 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
- • The typical person named Herma is about 82 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Hermas were born before 1954.
People living today
124
~ 1 in 2,764,148 Americans
Peak year
1918
32 babies that year
Average age
82
years old
1964 SSA rank
#7,146
Tracked since 1884
Census
Herma in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 663 people with the first name Herma, which placed it at #16,857 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
#16,857
National first-name rank
People counted
663
663 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
39.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Herma
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Herma is Black at 39.5%. The next largest groups are White (35.1%) and Hispanic (17.3%). 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 Herma 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 Herma at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American39.5% · 262
- White35.1% · 233
- Hispanic or Latino17.3% · 115
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 36
- Two or more races1.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 8
Popularity
Herma: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Herma from the 1880s through to the 1960s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 209 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Herma 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 Herma during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hermas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Herma
The given name Herma finds its origins in Ancient Greece, where it was derived from the Greek word "Hermes," the name of the messenger god in Greek mythology. The name Hermes itself is thought to come from the word "herma," which referred to a rectangular stone slab with a carved head and male genitalia, used as a boundary marker or signpost.
In Greek mythology, Hermes was the god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, and travel. He was also the messenger of the gods and the guide of souls to the underworld. The name Herma, therefore, carried associations with these various aspects of the Greek god.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Herma can be found in ancient Greek literature, such as the works of Homer and Hesiod. In the Iliad, Hermes is depicted as the messenger of the gods, delivering messages between the immortals and mortals.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Herma. One of the earliest was Herma of Miletus, a Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived in the 5th century BCE. He is credited with inventing the concept of the "herma," the stone slabs that the name is derived from.
Another prominent figure was Herma of Pergamon, a Greek philosopher and logician who lived in the 2nd century BCE. He was a student of the famous Stoic philosopher Chrysippus and is known for his writings on logic and epistemology.
In the Christian tradition, there was Saint Herma, a 1st-century Christian author and supposed disciple of the Apostles. He is known for writing the influential work "The Shepherd of Hermas," which was widely read in the early Christian Church and was even considered for inclusion in the Biblical canon.
During the Renaissance period, there was Herma Battista Alberti, an Italian humanist, author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer who lived from 1404 to 1472. He is considered one of the founding figures of the Renaissance and made significant contributions to various fields, including architecture, art theory, and linguistics.
Another notable figure was Herma von Unrug, a German noblewoman and renowned horticulturist who lived from 1732 to 1811. She was instrumental in the development of modern horticulture and is credited with introducing numerous plant species to Europe from her travels around the world.
People
Herma + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Herma 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
Herma: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Herma?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 124 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Herma 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 2,764,148 US residents.
Is Herma a common name?
We classify Herma as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 861 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Herma most popular?
The single biggest year for Herma was 1918, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Herma is about 82 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Herma in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 663 people with the name Herma, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,857 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 Herma 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 Herma?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Herma leans strongly female. 634 people counted with this name were female (95.8%), compared with 28 male bearers (4.2%). 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 Herma?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Herma is Black at 39.5%. The next largest groups are White (35.1%) and Hispanic (17.3%). 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 Herma most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Herma in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.5% (262 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 Herma in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Herma a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Herma 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 Herma still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Herma 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 Herma 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 Herma?
See how many Americans are named Herma on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.