Henry

Masculine variants

In the High Middle Ages, the name was Latinized as Henricus. It was a royal name in Germany, France, and England throughout the high medieval period (Henry I of Germany, Henry I of England, Henry I of France) and widely used as a given name; as a consequence, many regional variants developed in the languages of Western and Central Europe.

Within German, Low German, Frisian, and Dutch, numerous diminutives and abbreviated forms exist, including Low German, Dutch and Frisian Heike, Heiko; Dutch Hein, Heintje; and German Heiner, Heinz.

The original diphthong was lost in Dutch Hendrik (hypocoristics Henk, Hennie, Rik) and Scandinavian Henrik (whence Henning).

Eastern European languages developed native forms during the medieval period under the influence of German and the Scandinavian languages; hence Polish Henryk; Czech Jindřich, Hynek; Hungarian, Slovene, and Serbo-Croatian Henrik; Finnish Henrikki (hypocoristic Heikki); and Lithuanian Henrikas or Herkus.

The Old French form Henri and Middle French form Henry became popular in the British Isles, adopted into Middle English as Harry, Herry. Herry was adopted into Welsh as Perry; into Irish as Annraoi, Anraí, and Einrí; and into Scottish Gaelic as Eanraig, Eanruig.

In Southern Europe, variants without the initial "H" include Italian Arrigo, Enrico, and Enzo; Catalan language and Occitan Enric; and Spanish Enrique (whence Basque Endika).

A separate variant, which may have originated with the Old High German name Haimirich but was possibly conflated with the names Ermenrich (first element ermen "whole") or Amalric (first element amal "vigour, bravery"), is Emmerich. Emmerich is the origin of a separate suite of variant names used across Western and Central Europe, although these never rose to the ubiquity of the variants of Henry: English Emery, Amery, Emory; French Émeric, Aymeric; Hungarian Imre, Imrus; Slovak Imrich; Italian Amerigo; and Iberian (Portuguese, Spanish, Galician) Américo.

Feminine variants

Several variants of Heinrich have given rise to derived feminine given names.

Low German Henrik, Hendrik gave rise to Henrike, Hendrike, Hendrikje, Hendrina, Henrika and others, Low German Heiko to Heike, Italian Enrico gave rise to Enrica, Spanish Enrique to Enriqueta, Enriquetta, Enriquette. French Henri gave rise to Henriette, Henrietta, further modified to Enrieta, Enrietta, English Harry to Harriet, Harriett, Harrietta, Harriette, hypocorisms Hattie, Hatty, Hettie, Etta, Ettie; various other hypocorisms include Hena, Henna, Henah, Heni, Henia, Henny, Henya, Henka, Dutch Jet, Jett, Jetta, Jette, Ina. In Polish Henryka, Henia, Heniusia, Henka, Henryczka, Henrysia, Rysia are attested. The hypocorisms Rika, Rike etc. may be from this or other names with the second element -ric. Spanish and Portuguese América from the Emmerich variant Amérigo .

Surnames

Harrison, Henson, Harris, Heaney (Irish surname), Fitzhenry (Irish Hiberno-Norman surname), Heinz (German surname), Enríquez (Spanish surname), Henriques (Portuguese surname), Heney, Henney,

Hendrick,

Hendricks,

Hinrichs,

Hendrickx,

Hendriks,

Hendrikx,

Hendrix,

Hendryx, Henderson, Hendrickson, and Henderickson.

In different languages

Albanian: Enrik, Henri

Arabic: هنري (Hinri)

Afrikaans: Hendrik

Alemmanic: Hene, Heini, Heiri

Amharic: ሄንሪ (Hēnirī)

Armenian: Հենրի (Henri)

Basque: Endika

Bavarian: Heini, Heiner

Belarusian: Henryk

Breton: Herri

Bulgarian: Хенри (Henri)

Catalan: Enric

Chinese (Mandarin): 亨利 (Hēnglì)

Czech: Jindra, Jindřich, Hynek

Danish: Henrik, Henrick, Hendrich, Henderich,

Dutch: Henk, Henrik, Henrick, Hendrich, Hendrik, Hendrick, Henderick

English: Henry, Hendrick, Hennie, Hendrie, Henderick, Henrie, Henny, Hen, Han, Hannie, Hanny, Hendry, Henk, Hein, Hank, Hankie, Heinz Hanky, Harry, Harrie, Hal, Handrick, Handerick, Rick, Ricky, Rickie, Rich, Henderson, Hendrickson, Henderickson, Henriette, Henrietta, Henrique, Hatty, Heinrich, Heinnie, Heinny, Hein, Ettie, Harriet, Harriette, Harrietta, Henky, Henkie, Henriet, Henrick, Henrich, Heina, Heindrick, Heinderick, Hendrich, Hetty, Hattie, Henderich, Heinderich, Hettie, Henricus, Henriquetta Henka, Henya, Hendricka, Hendericka, Henah, Heinderickhuson Hendricks, Hendericks, Henna, Hendrix, Henderix, Etta, Ette, Hendy, Hendie, Rijk, Henson, Hennah, Harrison, Harris, Henris, Henrison, Henrickus, Henrickas, Henning,

Estonian: Heiki, Hindrek, Indrek, Henri, Henrai, Henraiv, Raivo

People with the given name

Royalty

Henry I (disambiguation)

Henry II (disambiguation)

Henry III (disambiguation)

Henry IV (disambiguation)

Henry V (disambiguation)

Henry VI (disambiguation)

Henry VII (disambiguation)

Henry VIII (disambiguation)

Henry IX (disambiguation)

Henry X (disambiguation)

Henry XI (disambiguation)

Byzantine Emperor

Henry of Flanders, Byzantine emperor, one of the principal commanders of Bulgarian–Latin wars, Battle of Philippopolis (1208) and Battle of the Rhyndacus (1211)

Holy Roman Emperors

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor

Kings of England

Henry I of England

Henry II of England

Henry III of England

Religious figures

Henry (bishop of Finland) (c. 1100–1156)

Henry Bretislaus, member of the Přemyslid dynasty, Bishop of Prague from 1182, then Duke of Bohemia as "Bretislaus III"

Henry Compton (bishop) (c. 1632–1713), Bishop of London during the Glorious Revolution

Henry B. Eyring (born 1933), American religious leader

Henry Hochheimer (1818–1912), German-American rabbi

Henry J. Messing (1847–1913), German-American rabbi

Henry Oldenburg, German theologian, diplomat, natural philosopher, and creator of scientific peer review, one of the foremost intelligencers of Europe of the seventeenth century

Henry Zdik, Bishop of Olomouc, one of the principal commanders of the Wendish Crusade

Nobility

Henry de Audley (1175–1246), English baron

Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst (1762–1834)

Henry de Bohun, medieval knight killed by King Robert I of Scotland

Henry Borwin II, Lord of Mecklenburg

Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham

Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer

Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (1526–1596)

Henry Dandolo (1107–1205), 41st Doge of Venice, one of the principal commanders of the Fourth Crusade, Battle of Adrianople (1205), Sack of Constantinople, Siege of Constantinople (1203) and Byzantine–Venetian war of 1171

Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster (c. 1310–1361), member of the English royal family, diplomat, politician, and soldier, one of the principal commanders of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1360), Battle of Bergerac, Battle of Auberoche and Lancaster's chevauchée of 1346

Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge (1785–1856), British Army officer and politician

Henry Light (1782/3–1870), Third governor of British Guiana

Henry Hotspur Percy, late-medieval English nobleman, one of the principal commanders of the Battle of Homildon Hill, Battle of Otterburn and Battle of Shrewsbury

Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester

Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough

Henry de Nassau, Lord Overkirk, Dutch nobleman and military general

Presidents and prime ministers

Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime minister of Great Britain, one of the principal commanders of World War I

Henry Campbell-Bannerman, British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Henry Pelham, British Whig statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death, one of the principal commanders of the War of the Austrian Succession and War of Jenkins' Ear

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century, one of the principal commanders of the Crimean War

Henry A. Wallace, American politician, journalist, and farmer who served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States, the 11th United States Secretary of Agriculture and the 10th United States Secretary of Commerce

Wartime figures and military leaders

Henry Athukorale (1930–2019), Sri Lankan Sinhala army officer

Henry Bagenal (c. 1556–1598), marshal of the Royal Irish Army, one of the principal commanders of the Irish Nine Years' War and Battle of the Yellow Ford

Henry Washington Benham, American general and civil engineer, one of the principal commanders of Battle of Secessionville

Henry "Harry" Chauvel, senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force during World War I, one of the principal commanders of Sinai and Palestine campaign, Battle of Romani, Battle of Magdhaba, Battle of Beersheba (1917), Battle of Sharon, Capture of Damascus and Pursuit to Haritan

Henry Clay Jr., American politician and soldier from Kentucky, one of the principal commanders of Mexican-American War and Battle of Buena Vista

Henry Crerar, senior officer of the Canadian Army who became the country's "leading field commander" in World War II, where he commanded the First Canadian Army, one of the principal commanders of the Battle of the Scheldt

Henry Docwra, 1st Baron Docwra of Culmore, English-born soldier and statesman in 17th-century Ireland, founder of the city of Derry, one of the principal commanders of the Irish Nine Years' War

Henry Every (born c. 1653), British pirate

Henry Gurney, British colonial administrator, one of the principal commanders of the Malayan Emergency

Henry Ruhl Guss (1825–1907), Union Army brevet Major General

Henry Hawley, British army officer who served in the wars of the first half of the 18th century, one of the principal commanders of the Battle of Falkirk Muir and Jacobite rising of 1745

Politicians

Henry Abeywickrema (1905–1976), Sri Lankan Cabinet minister

Henry Addington (1757–1844), British statesman and Prime Minister of United Kingdom, one of the principal commanders of the French Revolutionary Wars

Henry Woodward Amarasuriya (1904–1981), Sri Lankan Cabinet minister, founding member of the United National Party, educationist, philanthropist, and plantation owner

Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, British politician and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Henry Bertram Price, Governor of Guam

Henry Givens Burgess, Irish railway executive and politician

Henry Francis Bryan (1865–1944), 17th Governor of American Samoa

Henry Clay (1777–1852), American statesman, politician, war hawk, presidential candidate, and founder of the Whig Party

Henry De Mel (1877–1936), Sri Lankan Sinhala industrialist, lawyer, philanthropist, and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon

Henry S. Evans (1813–1872), American politician

Henry D. Gilpin (1801–1860), 14th Attorney General of the United States

Henry Goonesekera, Sri Lankan Sinhala politician, member of the 2nd State Council of Ceylon

Henry Goulburn (1784–1856), British Conservative statesman and a member of the Peelite faction after 1846

Film

Henry, Indian producer

Henry "Hank" Azaria (born 1964), American actor in film, television, and theater

Henry Cavill (born 1983), British actor

Henry Czerny (born 1959), Canadian film, stage, and television actor

Henry Daniell (1894–1963), English actor

Henry Fonda (1905–1982), American actor

Henry Golding (born 1987), British Malaysian actor

Henry Hathaway (1898–1985), American film director

Henry Hunter Hall (born 1997), American actor

Henry Jayasena (1931–2009), Sri Lankan actor in cinema, television, and theater

Henry King (1886–1982), American actor and film director

Henry Koster (1905–1988), German-American film director

Henry Roxby Beverley (1790–1863), English actor

Henry Selick (born 1952), American stop-motion film director

Henry Thomas (born 1971), American actor

Henry B. Walthall (1878–1936), American actor

Henry Winkler (born 1945), American actor and producer

Music

Henry Brant (1913–2008) Canadian born American composer

Henry Cowell (1897–1965), American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher and the husband of Sidney Robertson Cowell

Henry Jackman (born 1974), English composer

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr (1943–1997) known professionally as John Denver, American singer

Henry Krtschil (1932–2020), German composer

Henry Lau (born 1989), Canadian singer, musician, and actor, who performs under the mononym Henry

Henry Mancini (1924–1994), American composer

Henry Olmino (born 1974), American musician

Henry Purcell (1659–1695), English composer

Henry Rollins (born 1961), American singer

Henry Samuel (born 1963), British singer-songwriter known professionally as Seal

Scientists

W. Henry Bragg, British physicist, chemist, mathematician, and active sportsman

Henry Renno Heyl (1842–1919), American inventor and chemist

Henry Parker Sartwell (1792–1867), American botanist

Henry I. Smith (born 1937), American physicist and inventor

Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877), English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer

Businessmen

Henry Bizot (1901–1990), French banker and first chairman of the Banque Nationale de Paris

Henry Canoy (1923–2008), Filipino businessman and founder of Radio Mindanao Network

Henry Cheng (born 1946), Hong Kong billionaire property developer

Henry Flagler (1830–1913), American tycoon, real estate promoter, and railroad developer, known as the father of Miami, Florida

Henry Fok (1923–2006), Hong Kong businessman

Henry Ford (1863–1947), American inventor, industrialist, father of the modern assembly line, and founder of Ford Motor Company

Henry Givens Burgess, Irish railway executive and politician

Henry J. Heinz, German entrepreneur and founder of Heinz Ketchup company

H. F. S. Morgan (1881–1959), English sports car manufacturer and founder and chairman of the Morgan Motor Company

Henry Sy (1924–2019), Chinese-Filipino billionaire, business magnate, investor, philanthropist and founder of SM Prime Holdings Inc.

Explorers

Henry Hudson (born c. 1560s/70s), English sea explorer

Prince Henry the Navigator (1394–1460), responsible for the early development of European exploration and maritime trade with other continents

Literary figures

Ralph Henry Barbour, American novelist

Henry G. Brinton (born 1960), American author and pastor, a contributor to the Washington Post and USA Today

Henry Graham Dakyns (1838–1911), British translator

Henry James (1843–1916), American author

Henry Charles Lea (1825–1909), American historian

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), American poet

Henry Miller (1891–1980), American writer

Henry Peterson (1818–1891), American editor, novelist, poet and playwright

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), American author

Criminals

Henry Grammer (1883–1923), American cowboy, bootlegger, and murderer

Henry Lee Lucas (1936–2001), American serial killer

Artists

Henry Ward Ranger (1858–1916), American artist

John Henry Lorimer, Scottish painter

Henry Moore (1898–1986), English sculptor and artist

Henry Orth (1866–1946), American architect

Henry Parayre (1879–1970), French sculptor

Henry Payne, British stained glass artist, watercolourist and painter of frescoes

Henry Richardson (born 1961), American sculptor

Henry Strater (1896–1987) American painter and illustrator

Henry Ossawa Tanner, American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim

Sportsmen

Henry "Hank" Aaron (1934–2021), American baseball player

Henry Adjei-Darko (born 1983), Ghanaian tennis player

Henry Austin (baseball) (1844–1904), American baseball player

Henry Adrian Austin (born 1972), Barbadian cricketer

Henry Fitzherbert Austin (1874–1957), Barbadian cricketer

Henry Bibby (born 1949), American basketball player

Henry Brzustewicz (born 2007), American ice hockey player

Henry Cárdenas (born 1965), Colombian road cyclist

Henry Cejudo (born 1987), American mixed martial artist and UFC Flyweight Champion

Henry Collins (boxer) (born 1977), Australian boxer

Henry Cooper (1934–2011), British boxer, British, European and Commonwealth heavyweight champion in 1970

Henry Duhamel (1853–1917), French mountaineer, author, and skiing pioneer

Henry Galinato (born 1997), Filipino-American basketball player

Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (1903–1941), American baseball player nicknamed "The Iron Horse"

Hank Greenberg (1911–1986), American hall of fame baseball player

Henry Hynoski (born 1988), American football player

Others

Henry Allingham (1896–2009), briefly the world's oldest man

Henry L. Bachman (born 1930), American electrical engineer

H. Parrott Bacot (born Henry Parrott Bacot; 1941–2020), art historian and museum director

Henry Adams Bellows, newspaper editor and radio executive

Henry Bender (fl. 1850–1869), German Jewish bookseller

Henry Engelbert (1826–1901), German-American architect

Henry Louis Gates Jr., American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker

Henry George, American political economist and journalist

Henry Goddard Leach (1880–1970), American Scandinavian studies scholar

Henry Alfred Ian Goonetilleke, Sri Lankan Sinhala library director at the University of Peradeniya and scholar

Henry Wilson Hodge (1865–1919), American civil engineer

Henry Kelly (1946–2025), Irish television presenter and radio DJ

Henry Liddell (1811–1898), British university dean and author

Henry Mayhew, English social researcher, journalist, playwright, and reform advocate

Henry More, English philosopher of the Cambridge Platonist school

Fictional characters

Henery Hawk, Warner Bros. Looney Tunes character

Henry, a character from the 2008 video game No More Heroes

Henry the Octopus, a character from The Wiggles

Henry (comics), a comic character that began in 1932

Henry the Green Engine, a steam locomotive from The Railway Series and Thomas & Friends

Henry I, another character from the television series Once Upon a Time

Uncle Henry, character from the Oz books by L. Frank Baum

Horrid Henry, fictional character from the eponymous children's book series and comedy television show

Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake, a character in the M*A*S*H novels, film and TV series

Henry Deacon, from the television series Eureka

Henry Huggins, a character created by Beverly Cleary

Dr. Henry Jekyll, title character in the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Henry/Hank Jennings, a character from the television series Twin Peaks

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. (Indiana Jones), the title character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise

Henry McCoy (a.k.a. Beast), a comic book superhero in Marvel Comics