Henry is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.
The first name Henry is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #22 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Henry, accounting for approximately 0.60 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 663,242 people – children, adults and seniors – named Henry living in the United States, which is approximately 0.20 % of the entire population.
There is no exact meaning for the first name Henry. The name is an English form of the Germanic first name Heimirich. This is composed of the Old High German words ‘heim’ for ‘house’ and ‘rīhhi’ for ‘ruler, rule, power’. Henry could therefore mean something like ‘ruler of the house’.
Interesting facts! The henry' (symbol: H) is the unit of inductance, as well as magnetic conductance, in the SI system of units and is named after the American physicist Joseph Henry. It is specific to each conductor coil and is usually indicated on it.
Henry Ford (1863 – 1947)
He founded the Ford Motor Company und created the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford. The industrialist also was a chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production.
Henry Kissinger (*1923)
The German-born American politician and diplomat served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. Kissinger remains a polarizing figure in US politics, winning the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances.
Henry VIII (1491 – 1547)
He was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Establishing the theory of the divine right of kings, he is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution. Today, Henry VIII is best remembered for his six marriages and the execution of two of his wives.
Henry Fonda (1905 – 1982)
Fonda is one of the most famous actors of his era. Several of his films are considered to be classics, including “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) and “12 Angry Men” (1957). A few months before his death, he won the Oscar for Best Actor for his final film role in "On Golden Pond" (1981).
When you hear the name Henry, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Henry? Are you also called Henry? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
is a county located in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was founded in 1821.
is the name of several lakes in the US. One is for example located in Highlands County, Florida, one in Douglas County, Minnesota.
is the namesake of several buildings, including the Henry Ford Museum and the Henry Ford Hospital, both located in Detroit, Michigan.
is named Henry Street Settlement located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1893 by the humanitarian and nurse Lillian Wald.
take place at the Henry B. González Convention Center. It is located in San Antonio, Texas, and opened in 1968.
The name Henry is as much a part of the DNA of the USA as the Constitution, the Capitol and the Superbowl: Henry is one of the few boys' names that have been given in the USA every year since the beginning of the name statistics, and thus since 1880. Of course, Henry hasn't been equally popular in all 143 years - but it's just recently become especially beloved. In 2022 it was even ranked number 7 in our SmartGenius name statistics, making it one of the most popular boys' names in the entire United States.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Henry was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
In 2022 the name Henry was given a total of 11,233 times in the USA, ranking #7 on the list of the most popular boys' names. It was least common in 1994 - back then only 2,427 expectant parents gave their child the name Henry, ranking it #141 of all male names in our SmartGenius statistics, so there were 140 other boy names given more often in 1994.
There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Henry is one of them. However, Henry is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Mississippi seem to particularly fancy this name – the 19,001 men called Henry who live here are 0,950% of all male residents and push their name up to #13 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Mississippi. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 663,242 people with the name Henry. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Henry on position 49 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter H is not particularly common as a first letter for boys' names: only 2.9% of all common boys' names in the US begin with an H. The most common first letters for boys' names are J and A, while X and U are the least common first letters of boys' names.
With five letters, the name Henry is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
This means that if 2.9% of all boys' names begin with an H, this initial letter is less common than the other letters on average. Nevertheless, there are of course some names that begin with H and are extremely popular, for example Henry, currently the most common boys’ name with H.
If your name is Henry and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Henry, you can simply say:
Hat
Elephant
Nut
Rocket
Yoyo
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Henry
Henry
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
H
E
N
R
Y
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
H
E
N
R
Y
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Henry sounds like this:
