Herby vs Herschel
American parents have registered 10,674 Herschels since 1880, against 649 Herbys. Herschel is still ahead, with 34 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Herby Herschel
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Herschel has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 2005, when Herby had 6 and Herschel had 8.
Side by side
| Herby | Herschel | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 649 | 10,674 |
| Most in one year | 18 | 277 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 34 |
| Estimated living today | 340 | 3,500 |
| Median age today | 60 | 61 |
| Peak year | 1929 | 1921 |
| Best rank | 1,793rd boys | 361st boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 3,379th |
| First recorded | 1918 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 649 | 0 / 10,674 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Herby and Herschel.