Heron
Heron was given to 16 boys in 2025, #5,691 among boys’ names; 702 Americans have been recorded with it since 1916 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Heron by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Heron?
#5,691 among boys’ names, 2025
Heron rose from #5,826 in 2015 to #5,691 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.8 to 9.4 per million.
24 babies in 2024, the peak
Heron peaked in 2024, when 24 boys were given it, #4,355 among boys’ names. The 16 births of 2025 are 67% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 16 | #5,691 | 9.4 |
| 2024 | 24 | #4,355 | 13.9 |
| 2023 | 16 | #5,752 | 9.4 |
| 2022 | 21 | #4,763 | 12.0 |
| 2021 | 17 | #5,412 | 9.7 |
| 2020 | 18 | #5,105 | 10.4 |
| 2019 | 13 | #6,547 | 7.2 |
| 2018 | 16 | #5,624 | 8.8 |
| 2017 | 17 | #5,371 | 9.2 |
| 2016 | 8 | #9,160 | 4.2 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 15 | #5,826 | 7.8 |
| 2014 | 10 | #7,758 | 5.2 |
| 2013 | 12 | #6,754 | 6.3 |
| 2012 | 8 | #9,171 | 4.2 |
| 2011 | 8 | #9,057 | 4.2 |
| 2010 | 9 | #8,368 | 4.7 |
| 2009 | 9 | #8,547 | 4.5 |
| 2008 | 19 | #4,958 | 9.3 |
| 2007 | 10 | #7,800 | 4.8 |
| 2006 | 9 | #8,253 | 4.4 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,314 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 21 | #4,170 | 10.6 |
| 2003 | 12 | #5,999 | 6.1 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,249 | 4.6 |
| 2001 | 15 | #4,969 | 7.7 |
| 2000 | 17 | #4,456 | 8.7 |
| 1999 | 15 | #4,609 | 7.8 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,573 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 16 | #4,071 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 16 | #3,931 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 6 | #8,135 | 3.1 |
| 1993 | 9 | #5,927 | 4.6 |
| 1992 | 14 | #4,194 | 7.0 |
| 1991 | 6 | #7,620 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 5 | #8,616 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,478 | 3.5 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,280 | 5.7 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,558 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 9 | #4,460 | 4.9 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,708 | 2.8 |
| 1983 | 6 | #5,747 | 3.3 |
| 1982 | 9 | #4,366 | 5.0 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,689 | 4.5 |
| 1980 | 12 | #3,490 | 6.7 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,037 | 4.1 |
| 1978 | 8 | #4,303 | 4.9 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,392 | 3.7 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,045 | 3.8 |
| 1974 | 9 | #3,670 | 5.7 |
| 1973 | 5 | #5,396 | 3.2 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,278 | 3.1 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,217 | 2.8 |
| 1970 | 9 | #3,374 | 4.8 |
| 1969 | 8 | #3,419 | 4.5 |
| 1965 | 5 | #4,143 | 2.7 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,698 | 2.8 |
| 1952 | 8 | #2,962 | 4.1 |
| 1950 | 8 | #2,878 | 4.5 |
| 1947 | 5 | #3,968 | 2.7 |
| 1946 | 5 | #3,737 | 3.1 |
| 1945 | 5 | #3,511 | 3.7 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,754 | 3.5 |
| 1935 | 5 | #3,890 | 4.8 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,244 | 4.6 |
| 1928 | 6 | #3,905 | 5.4 |
| 1927 | 7 | #3,614 | 6.2 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,022 | 5.6 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,234 | 8.2 |
| 1916 | 7 | #3,323 | 7.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Heron a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 702 Americans recorded as Heron, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 16 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Heron: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Heron, and how old are they?
An estimated 620 Americans named Heron and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (88% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 9 and 37. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,028 people named Heron (89 women and girls, 939 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 521 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 6,044 babies since 1880, Heron is the second most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 16 of their 88 babies (18%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Heron
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Heron and names like it
- Compare Heron and HernanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sHeron peaked in 2024.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Heron since 1910.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Heron.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Heron alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with HMost given first.