Herman
- Pronunciation
- [Her-man]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Soldier. See Also Harmon.
- Origin
- German
About the Name Herman
Herman is a Germanic name built on the elements heri (army) and man (man), yielding the meaning of a soldier or army man — a straightforward martial image common to the Germanic naming tradition. The name passed into English through German and Dutch immigration, and by the nineteenth century it had established a solid presence in American naming, particularly among families of German and Scandinavian descent. Its two-syllable structure and strong consonants gave it an unhurried, dependable character.
Two notable bearers stand out. Herman Melville (born 1819) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance whose works — particularly Moby-Dick — are now central to the American literary canon. Herman Potočnik was born on December 22, 1892, in Pola, then the Austro-Hungarian naval port on the Istrian peninsula and now the Croatian city of Pula; his father Jožef, a Slovenian naval surgeon, died in 1894.
In the US Social Security top-1000, Herman appears in the top-1000 from 1880 and reached its peak of #44 in 1886, a remarkably early apex that reflects the name's strong identification with the nineteenth-century immigrant generation. It exited the chart in 1934 with 2,011 births at #97, having accumulated more than 75,000 top-1000 births. Recorded variants include Armand and Hermie.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Herman
US Popularity History (1880–1934)
Annual US births named Herman by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1921 with 3,219 boys named Herman (boy rank #64 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1934, ranked #97 for boys (2,011 US births). That's 33 places below its 1921 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armand | Protective | Male | German |
Famous People Named Herman
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Herman.
- Herman Melville — Novelist (1819)
- Herman Potočnik was a Slovenian rocket engineer who is most remembered for his outstanding contribution in the field of space travel.
Looking for names like Herman?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Herman to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Herman against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).