How popular is Henry where you live?

Question

One of the boys' names my husband has suggested is Henry. I really like it, and I could see myself potentially having a son called Henry.

One thing that concerns me, though: In some areas of the country, Henry has become rather trendy. I wonder if this is primarily the case on the East Coast, but I've heard some moms say that the most popular names among their social set seem to be Henry, Oliver, and Charles.

Not so here in Northern California. Henry just barely made it into our state's top 100 last year, and I've only heard of one baby Henry in our area (and I'm a teacher who is around LOTS of little kids and their younger siblings and cousins and such).

My question for you is this: How popular is Henry in your area? I'm asking you to answer this based on your own experiences -- either from reading birth announcements or from hearing the names your friends are considering for their babies. What kind of image does Henry have in your area? What sorts of people seem to be using it?

Also, if you wouldn't mind sharing, can you tell me what state or region of the country you live in, and describe your immediate area a bit (e.g., "fashionable urban center", "rural farming community", "multicultural suburban area", etc.).

Thanks so much!

Answer 1

I come from Louisiana. The last time it was in the top 100 was in 1989. It's most popular time (based on the website I searched**) was 1960, at #49 in Louisiana. Throughout the 60s and early 70s, it held on at around 50th-70th most popular. In started to fade out after that, beginning to achieve 80th-90th most popular, and not even appearing in the Top 100 for LA for a few years at some times during the 80s.



Pertaining to the U.S. in general, again from the website I looked at, Henry was mostly a Southern name, with some popularity in New England during the 60s and 70s. Then it slowly fades in popularity (everywhere) and starts make an appearance again towards the late 90s in the northern states, New England again and in the Mid-West. Actually, it shows Minnesota in 2007 as being Henry's highest peak in popularity.



The overall attributes of Henry (based on my own thoughts, and what I would assume others mostly think as well) is masculine and down-to-earth. I always picture an approx. 40 year-old lumberjack with a beard for some reason. LOL! But I have always liked the name. I would actually like to use the name on a son too -- but I have an almost 2 year old brother named Ira Henry (which was my great grandfather's name), and it seems at times that he will probably go by Ira Henry instead of just his first name Ira. I would rather not use Henry if the former is the case.



You have the excellent situation of being a teacher for little children. A lot of times, you also can not go so much by state as a good indicator of a popularity of a name. There are little pockets everywhere, it seems, where a name will get "stuck" in popularity for a while. Beau are VERY popular names right now where I live. However, in some of the less French areas (i.e., north and extreme west, which are most like Arkansas and Texas in culture), they are probably more rare. Btw, I live in a rural fishing community, where everybody pretty much knows everybody and everybody's business. :/

Answer 2

I haven't heard any of my son's friends have the name Henry, Oliver or Charles (although I will be surprised if I don't run into an Oliver here soon!) - but Henry is listed as my 35 on the SSA list for Oregon names in 2008. I live in a fairly big city, but there are also a LOT of rural farming areas and such in Oregon...



California is listed at 96

Arizona doesn't have it listed

Nevada doesn't have it listed

Utah is listed at 64

Idaho is listed at 71

Washington is listed at 45



My nephew has the middle name of Henry - after a family member... (not sure who though)



The name Henry doesn't really bring any particular image to mind - but I imagine that the parents who would use it would fall into one of a few different groups

* Caring parent (would have a clean, well kept child - very loving and smart - just wanting a good, strong, solid name)

* Farming parent (just can be a small town name)

* Yuppy parent (wanting to show class)



As you can see - there really isn't any one image that springs to my mind - Henry is a name that I would have to wait and see the person before I made any judgments...



I personally am ho-hum about the name... but I am all for others using it if they like it because it is such a good, strong, solid name!



Best of luck and hope this helps :-)

Answer 3

I live in the south. It's a small town, but not a rural one by any means.

I remember reading about our most popular names in the paper a while ago. Not cutting my town down or anything but...Jayden was our third most popular girl name. If that doesn't say something about our popular names, I don't know what will. LOL



Everything here is trendy, trendy, trendy. Henry would be a rarity. We live quite a ways away from each other, so I'm not sure how that will impact your decision.



Have you noticed that the more classic names are taking off in the west and to the south it's all gone trendy? I guess you have more variety of people over in California, so you're used to all different cultures of names. But here, there have been Roberts, Henrys, and Charles' for years. I guess we're just now culturing to the more unusual.

Answer 4

I adore the name Henry!



I live in middle Tennessee [a fast growing, urban city right outside of Nashville] and I've never met one Henry, young or old. I don't know of anyone considering that name. Being such a name lover, I pay attention to names all the time [whether it be the little kids on my street, or the children in my cousin's pre-school class] and the only Henry I've heard of is my friend's little brother, who is eleven, and is named Kyle Henry and he goes by Kyle [my friend said Henry was after her mom's dad.] I don't know any other Henry's, or even any Hank's, for that matter.



I totally say go for it, hands down! It's a strong, beautiful name that is definitely adorbale on a little boy as well as masculine and stable on a grown-up. Even if Henry might be popular in some regions, it will never be "trendy". It's like Joseph, Thomas and William -- it's a timeless classic that's been used for years. It's an awesome choice!

Answer 5

Where I live, Henry is not popular at all (Jayden is, though!) However, where I'm from, and where my parents live (the hipster part of Brooklyn) it is extremely popular. However, since I like it and don't live in any trendy area, I've added it to my list because down here it would be a stand-out...in a good way. Erik isn't so convinced. It stays on the list anyway.



I live in the Hampton Roads area. I'd say it's a mix between rural and suburban, definitely an even mix of black and white, and certainly not very cosmopolitan or sophisticated.



In 2008, Henry was 67 in Virginia; Jayden was number 9, Brayden was 52, and number 1 was William (oh, I guess William's now off my list!)



Henry only rose one number since 2007, Brayden rose 15, and Jayden rose 12, telling you about the trends here.



Edit: to B@byH@ven, Henry was the number 22 name in Minnesota last year. That's pretty popular. More popular, in fact, than Jayden and Brayden; more popular than Hunter and Caleb; more popular than David, Christopher, Hayden, Parker, and Aidan (but not Aiden). So there. :P

Answer 6

I live in a small suburban town in southern Pennsylvania. I've only lived here a few months, but in the time we have been here, Henry hasn't been one of the names I have heard a lot. We have a friend, whose sister has a son named Henry, but he's a bit older(17) I think I have heard one other Henry, who lives a few streets down from us; I believe he is 5-6. Before moving to Pennsylvania, we lived in Delaware. I heard Henry even less there! I think I new one boy whose name was Henry and he was the son of a woman I worked with. He is probably 10-11 now.

I think Henry would be a wonderful choice for your sons name. I've considered the name myself as well! Over here in the East Coast(where I live at least) It isn't too popular, so I'm sure over in California it isn't either.

Best of luck in choosing a name!

Answer 7

Henry is #58 in Australia; 20 places higher than in the US. Henry jumped 13 places last year in the US and has been increasing in popularity over the last ten years, suggesting it really is becoming a more popular name there.



In Australia it actually FELL in popularity, and we have not seen the gradual steady rise it has enjoyed in the US. Here it seems to be pretty steady in the lower half of the top 100 for all this decade.



To be honest, I HAVE seen noticed a lot of little boys called Henry in the last few years; I'm guessing it's more popular here than the national average (they refuse to publish their stats in my state, much to my fury!)



It's definitely a middle and upper-middle class name here; it's still got quite a posh "English" image. If I see a family with a toddler called Henry, I'm going to picture a double-income professional family with fairly conservative values and quite possibly some private schooling.



I live in a sizeable semi-rural town on the edge of a major metropolitan center where education and income levels are way above the national average.

Answer 8

I live in New York, about 40 minutes from New York City, and it's a multicultural suburban area.



I've only met one Henry a couple months ago. He's around 13-15 years old.



I love the name Henry and plan to use it as a middle name (in honor of my cousin and great-grandfather). Though it may not matter to you, my cousin's middle name and my great-grandfather's name was Henrique (Portuguese form of Henry) and Henry. One is from Brazil, the other is from Germany.

I've never heard anyone considering the name nor met any baby with the name recently.



Interesting question.

Answer 9

Growing up, I lived in a fairly caucasian suburban area in hte Midwest (Chicago), and I went to school with one boy named Henry. He would be about 23 now though. In college in Michigan, I knew nobody named Henry and it was a very large school (I'm sure there were Henry's, just not in my social group). Now, I live in a rural yet somewhat touristy community in Southern South Carolina near Hilton Head (We have a variety of cultures here - the African American, miltary, and Hispanic primarily), and I actually shadow a pediatrician so I see lots of different names on the children. I have not seen any Henry's thus far here. Hope this is helpful, and I think Henry is really cute!

Answer 10

I live in Vacaville California, which is near Sacramento. Vacaville is a small city with lots of shopping and entertainment but still has a great amount of local farms local farms. It is a very homey town, with lots of young families. It is a sort of artsy town also. Anyways, the name Henry is very uncommon. I only know 2 people named Henry and they are older gentlemen. Definitely not a trendy name, as most people are naming their kids Brayden or something like that ;) but I think Henry is a very nice name ;D

Answer 11

I live in Northern Florida, in the Panhandle for the most part. I only know one Henry, personally, and he is a friend of my maternal grandmother. My paternal grandfather was Harry, but I am not sure if his real name was Henry or not, since Harry is a nickname for Henry.



For part of the year I live in Central Florida, in Orlando. I work at Disney World, in a playground, so I am around a lot of kids. I can only recall seeing one little Henry the two months I worked there this year. He had a brother named Jack, which I heard quite a lot down there.



I love Henry. Gorgeous, masculine, and wonderful for a little boy and a grown man. I have it on my middle name list, to honor my grandfather, Harry. I almost want to put it on my first name list now, thanks to you. Haha.

Answer 12

Where I live...which is the Eastern Shore of Maryland (kinda a mix between suburban and rural...not distinctly either), Henry is barely on the map. I know one Henry, born the end of April. And honestly, a lot of people were kinda like "Wow, Henry, that's different." I would not say it is popular in our area at all. I work in a large church nursery (where they care for the babies during the services), so I see a lot of little kids and infants and I have not run into a Henry (the woman who named her son Henry is a coworker). If you and your hubby like the name, go for it. I have gotten both responses for the name we picked for our son due in Nov. We are going with Liam and some people are like "Oh, that's different" and others are like "That's becoming popular". But we don't care...we love it and are sticking with it now.

Answer 13

I am also a teacher (formerly high school and 8th grade currently). I have never had a student named Henry, and I don't know any Henrys, or have ever heard that name around. I too, like the name a lot. I would say it's a contender!

Answer 14

I work with kids everyday. At an elementary school, a summer camp and babysitting. I live in CT and I don't know any children named Henry. Not 1 person from ages newborn to 20.



According to the US Social Security website, in CT for 2008 Henry was number 62 in the popularity chart. 70 boys were named Henry in CT for 2008.



Hope I helped :)



In my area Henry would be rich and dress very classy. He would have blonde hair and be very outgoing.



Oh and I live in Fairfield County, in CT. I live in one of the richest towns. Very preppy and everyone is rich(besides my family haha!) we just manage to live here cause of the great schools! And pretty much everyone in my town is Caucasian.

Answer 15

I live in New York City and i know 2 boys named Henry.One of them is a 4 year old , the other is 16 year old.I live in a urban center. I know 3 families who are considering Henry for their son.



I think of an all-around nice guy because of my experiences with that name

Answer 16

I live in a blue-collar suburb of Denver. I haven't met any Henrys under ten in quite awhile. I just checked the SSN website, and there were 127 Henrys born in Colorado last year. Gabriel, Jesus, Luis, and Julian are all more common, to put it in perspective. There were 211 James born in Colorado, one of them being mine ;) . My hospital and OB's office are in a more 'hip' part of town. I was cruising the little announcements on the board while I was recovering, and there were mostly Aiden type names, one Henry, one Oscar, an Odessa, and three Ivys. The other kids born on the same day were Emma, Ryan, and Julio. We just started swim classes yesterday, and the other kids were Aidan, Ayla (said AY-la, not sure of the spelling), Brayden, Caden, Jaden, Jackson, Fabian, Sammy (a girl), Stellan, and Jonah (twins). My daycare has Riley (boy) , Zach, Jadyn (girl), Will, and Jack. Just to give you an idea of what's in around here.



I love Henry. It got shot down by my husband because his sister's abusive ex is named Henry. It's a real bummer, because I adore it! I think it's a bit geek chic. It reminds me of Indiana Jones.

Answer 17

I live in North Wales - My father is called Henry - and until recently, that was the only Henry I knew.



My daughter started nursery a few months ago - there are more than a few Henrys there! x

Answer 18

I don't live in America, so I probably won't be any use to you.



I live in the South of England in a small village. I don't know of any Henry's, but the name is very much associated with "posh people". It's a rarely used name here.



I love it :) it's extremely handsome and masculine.

Answer 19

i really like Henry and i dont know anyone called that :) its soooo cute. i would think henry is a sort of traditionally english name, and quite posh, but since we live in modern times, i think not aot of people have the name and it sounds really nice.



I live in the built up suburbs directly between the gold coast (coastal beaches and city) and brisbane city (capital of Queensland), (about 15-20 mins either way) in Queensland, Australia :)

Answer 20

I have yet to meet a Henry here in Kentucky. And I don't think I ever met one where I am from (N.J.) I think it is a great name and not at all trendy.

Answer 21

I actually am not a fan of the name Henry. Where I live, it is known as an old man's name... Sorry, but I wouldn't suggest you naming him Henry. I live in Minnesota and usually no one names their kid Henry.

Answer 22

I live in Scotland, and Henry is not popular atall. I don't know any Henrys



It's a cute name, and I don't think its atall trendy. If you like it, go for it =]

Answer 23

Most people I know have not heard of him, though I hear he does have a bit of a following. I personally don't like his ideas, and find them silly.

Answer 24

I don't know any1 names Henry, but its a nice name(:

Answer 25

Me aaahhhh, don't necessarily like the name. This is one where'd me have to know the history of the name to rub off on me!