Hertha
Hertha was last recorded in 1965, when 5 babies were given it; 1,453 Americans have been recorded with it between 1886 and 1965 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hertha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hertha mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hertha is “a female given name from the Germanic languages occasionally borrowed from German around 1900.”
From German Hertha.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hertha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,882, in 1965; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
65 babies in 1916, the peak
Hertha peaked in 1916, when 65 girls were given it, #845 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | 5 | #6,882 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,524 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,129 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,447 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #5,884 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,728 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,554 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #4,880 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,632 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,227 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (70)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | 10 | #2,994 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 9 | #3,224 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 6 | #4,395 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 13 | #2,586 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 18 | #1,981 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 13 | #2,348 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 9 | #3,000 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 10 | #2,806 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 10 | #2,818 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 10 | #2,754 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,551 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 11 | #2,635 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 21 | #1,677 | 0.02 |
| 1932 | 15 | #2,176 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 13 | #2,354 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 18 | #1,976 | 0.02 |
| 1929 | 23 | #1,666 | 0.02 |
| 1928 | 27 | #1,560 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 31 | #1,465 | 0.03 |
| 1926 | 25 | #1,685 | 0.02 |
| 1925 | 28 | #1,590 | 0.02 |
| 1924 | 34 | #1,419 | 0.03 |
| 1923 | 33 | #1,409 | 0.03 |
| 1922 | 26 | #1,659 | 0.02 |
| 1921 | 38 | #1,264 | 0.03 |
| 1920 | 47 | #1,093 | 0.04 |
| 1919 | 42 | #1,146 | 0.04 |
| 1918 | 51 | #1,010 | 0.04 |
| 1917 | 56 | #929 | 0.05 |
| 1916 | 65 | #845 | 0.06 |
| 1915 | 61 | #834 | 0.06 |
| 1914 | 49 | #845 | 0.06 |
| 1913 | 46 | #776 | 0.07 |
| 1912 | 34 | #861 | 0.06 |
| 1911 | 20 | #996 | 0.05 |
| 1910 | 27 | #838 | 0.07 |
| 1909 | 35 | #675 | 0.10 |
| 1908 | 23 | #814 | 0.07 |
| 1907 | 8 | #1,564 | 0.03 |
| 1906 | 22 | #780 | 0.07 |
| 1905 | 13 | #1,074 | 0.04 |
| 1904 | 22 | #763 | 0.08 |
| 1903 | 27 | #645 | 0.10 |
| 1902 | 33 | #577 | 0.12 |
| 1901 | 14 | #898 | 0.06 |
| 1900 | 24 | #751 | 0.08 |
| 1899 | 26 | #611 | 0.11 |
| 1898 | 21 | #730 | 0.08 |
| 1897 | 22 | #668 | 0.09 |
| 1896 | 25 | #626 | 0.11 |
| 1895 | 20 | #710 | 0.09 |
| 1894 | 15 | #798 | 0.07 |
| 1893 | 11 | #922 | 0.05 |
| 1892 | 17 | #712 | 0.08 |
| 1891 | 14 | #734 | 0.08 |
| 1890 | 10 | #897 | 0.05 |
| 1889 | 10 | #869 | 0.06 |
| 1888 | 10 | #861 | 0.06 |
| 1887 | 12 | #673 | 0.08 |
| 1886 | 8 | #860 | 0.06 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hertha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Hertha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 70 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Hertha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hertha, and how old are they?
An estimated 106 Americans named Hertha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (7% of everyone recorded); the median is 83 years old and half are between 75 and 88. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 407 people named Hertha (407 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 172 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 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 that rose and fell in the same decades as Hertha
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 Hertha and names like it
- Compare Hertha and ErnaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sHertha peaked in 1916.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hertha since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Hertha: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1916The year the most babies were named Hertha.
- The names of the Silent GenerationMost people named Hertha alive today were born 1928-1945.
- Names starting with HMost given first.