boy's name
Hervé
air-VAY
- Origin Breton
- Gender Boy
- Letters 5
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 140,182
Hervé means battle-worthy, and it is Breton rather than French — a Brittonic name closer in ancestry to Welsh than to anything Latin. It ranks in France alone, at 4327th, down from 7,025 births.
- Hervé is a name of Breton origin.
- Peaked in France in 1967, when 7,025 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade in France.
- Today about 1 in 117,911 babies in France is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1900.
Hervé over time
Births per decade in France, 1900s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1900s | 1,655 |
| 1910s | 1,635 |
| 1920s | 2,480 |
| 1930s | 3,460 |
| 1940s | 8,415 |
| 1950s | 28,345 |
| 1960s | 54,490 |
| 1970s | 29,360 |
| 1980s | 7,745 |
| 1990s | 1,465 |
| 2000s | 385 |
| 2010s | 100 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 30 |
What Hervé means
Hervé means battle-worthy, or bright in battle. The Breton joins an element meaning battle to one read as worthy or bright, so both halves belong to warfare.
Where Hervé comes from
Hervé is a Breton name, from Haerviu — haer, battle, joined to viu, worthy or ardent — and it is one of the clearest Breton survivals in modern French naming. Saint Hervé was a sixth-century blind bard and hermit, one of the most popular saints in Brittany, usually shown with a wolf that killed his donkey and was made to take its place. Breton is a Brittonic language brought from Britain, so Hervé is a distant relative of Welsh and Cornish names rather than of French ones.
Hervé in use
Hervé peaked in France in 1967, when 7,025 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It charts in exactly one of the six markets we track, at 4327th in France on 5 births, across 140,182 lifetime births. Of the nine French names in this group it has fallen furthest from its peak.
How popular is Hervé?
In 2025, Hervé was given to 5 babies in France. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Hervé is used
French counts are rounded to the nearest five and nothing below five is published, so these figures show the shape of the name's use rather than an exact tally. Data & sources.
How Hervé is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Herve | Herve is a spelling of Hervé, used in Canada, where it ranks #2,454. | 637 |
Names that peaked alongside Hervé
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Hervé also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Hervé over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Hervé in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Hervé
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Hervé — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Hervé
What does the name Hervé mean?
Battle-worthy — the Breton haer, battle, joined to viu, worthy.
Is Hervé the same as Harvey?
Harvey descends from the same Breton name, carried to England by Bretons after the Conquest.
Is Breton a French language?
No — it is Brittonic, brought from Britain, and closer to Welsh and Cornish than to French.
How popular is Hervé?
4327th in France, down from a 1967 peak of 7,025 births.
Is Hervé a girl's or a boy's name?
Hervé is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
Is Hervé a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Hervé currently ranks #4,327 in France. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.