Herman (name)


Herman is masculine given name, from an ancient Germanic name consisting of the elements :wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/harjaz|harja- "army" and :wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/mann-|mann- "man". Hermine is the feminine form of Herman.
It is first recorded in the 8th century, in the forms Hariman, Heriman, Hairman, Herman.
The given name was taken to England by the Normans, but it became obsolescent as an English given name in the later Middle Ages. It regained popularity in the English-speaking world in the 19th century, particularly in the United States amongst German Americans.
Herman remains widely used in Dutch. Variant forms include German Hermann, French Armand, Italian and Iberian Armando, Italian Ermanno.
Herman has also been in use as a German surname since the 16th century.
The name of Arminius, the 1st-century leader of the Cherusci, became identified with the name Hermann in German historiography in the early modern period; thus, Arminius is traditionally known as Hermann der Cheruskerfürst in German. The name of Arminius is in fact from a stem :wikt:Appendix:Proto-Germanic/ermunaz|ermen- "strong". Conflation of this element with the name Herman may indeed date to the medieval period, via variant forms such as Ermin, Ermen, Erman, Ermanno, feminine Ermina, Ermana, Hirmina, Hermena.

Middle Ages

The name Herman was popular in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, consistently ranking between 55 and 44 throughout the 1880-1914 period. Beginning with World War I, the name's popularity entered a steady decline for the remainder of the twentieth century, falling below rank 1,000 in the year 2000.
Variants Herrmann, Herrman, Herman, Hermann, Hermanns
Early modern
Modern
see also: