Herbert

Where Herbert comes from

From Old French Herbert, from Frankish *Hariberht.
— Wiktionary's entry for Herbert
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1820
    Herbert Spencer born
    English philosopher and political theorist
  2. 1874
    Herbert Hoover born
    president of the United States from 1929 to 1933
  3. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #38 among boys — 424 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 1928
    Peak, #25
    8,065 babies named Herbert — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1933
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #49.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages, in modern use partly transferred back from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Herbert Hoover · president of the United States from 1929 to 1933, 1874–1964
  • Herbert Spencer · English philosopher and political theorist, 1820–1903
  • Herbert Marcuse · German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, 1898–1979
  • Herbert von Karajan · Austrian conductor, 1908–1989
  • Herbert Simon · American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, 1916–2001

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.