Humphrey
About Humphrey
Humphrey is an old name that might have faded completely were it not for that Bogie flair. A royal name in Britain, where it's used somewhat more frequently, Humphrey might just have some life beyond Bogart here, especially with the recent interest in the names of Golden Age Hollywood stars. His first name was the maiden name of his mother, Maud Humphrey, a well-known illustrator who used baby H. as a model.
Humphrey was brought to England by the Normans and was made famous by Duke Humphrey, the fifteenth century Duke of Gloucester and youngest son of Henry IV, a noted patron of literature, who appears in Shakespeare's Henry IV. In other literature, Humphrey Wasp is a character in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, and the eponymous hero of Tobias Smollett's early novel Humphrey Clinker. In James Joyce's Finnegans Wake Humphrey Climpden Earwicker represents the everyman.
Bottom line: An interesting name with a noirish edge.
As of October 2026, Humphrey ranked #9298 in US births in 2024 SSA, peaked at #678 in 1893.
Editor's take: The name Humphrey is a boy's name of German origin meaning "peaceful warrior".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | — | 0 | 0 |
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Humphrey.
- Homer
- Orville
- Bertie
- Elmer
- Ned
- Clem
- Seymour
- Herbert
- Fitzwilliam
- Oswald
- Fritz
- Ebenezer
- Cuthbert
- Thurgood
- Woodrow
- Bertram
- Giles
- Clive
- Barnabas
- Malachai
Humphrey on lists
Famous Humphreys
- Humphrey DeForest Bogart
American actor
- (David) Humphrey Rivers Ker
English actor and comedian
- Humphrey Gilbert
English explorer and MP; half,brother of Sir Walter Raleigh
- Humphrey Lyttelton
English jazz musician and composer
- Humphrey of Lancaster
1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Pembroke, youngest son of King Henry IV of England
- Humphrey Bate
American harmonica player and bandleader
- Humphrey Searle
English composer
- Humphrey Ocean
English painter
- Humphrey Edward Gregory Atkins
Baron Colnbrook, English MP and cabinet minister
- Humphrey Wells
American politician; 11th governor of Georgia for 2 days
Humphrey in pop culture
- Humphrey Repton
landscape gardener in Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park"
- Humphrey Appleby
character on British TV series "Yes, Minister"
- Humphrey Cadwallader
Rector in the 1871 novel “Middlemarch” by George Elliot
- Humphrey the Bear
Walt Disney cartoon character
- Humphrey
hamster in the "According to Humphrey" series by Betty Birney
- Daniel Humphrey
character in the Gossip Girl series
- DI Humphrey Goodman
detective inspector on British/French TV series "Death In Paradise"
Variations & nicknames
- HumfriedGerman
- HunfredoSpanish
- OnofreSpanish
- OnofredoItalian
- UnfraiIrish
- WmffreWelsh
- OnfroiFrench
- HumfridSwedish