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Girl · German (from a textual error)
Hertha
Say it: HAIR-tah
Meaning
Arose from a misreading of the goddess name Nerthus in manuscripts of Tacitus, then linked with German Erde 'earth'; meanings such as 'earth mother' rest on this error.
Disputedsharp disagreement, or a popular meaning that is not supported.
Popular in Germany from the late 19th century, when interest in Germanic antiquity was high.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1900s
In the United States
- 1,453 babies given this name since 1886
- At its height in 1902, about 1 in 8,000 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Herta
Famous bearers
- Hertha Ayrton, British engineer and physicist
- Herta Müller, German-Romanian Nobel laureate
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.