Heinz

History & Origin

Heinz is the German diminutive of Heinrich, the equivalent of Harry for Henry, from the Germanic heim, 'home', and ric, 'ruler'. Used as a stand-alone name in German-speaking lands, it reached the United States with German immigrants and appears in the record from the late nineteenth century.

Its American use as a first name was always small — a few dozen boys a year at most around its faint nineteen-twenties peak — and it declined as German names fell from favor. It reads as distinctly German heritage and has not revived as a given name here.