Hermine
A Germanic name, the feminine of Herman, built on roots meaning "army" and "man". In Poland it barely registers today: only about 32 women carry it, and most Poles have never met one.
Hermine Pronunciation
Hermine is pronounced kher-MEE-ne (/xɛrˈminɛ/).
What Hermine means
Where Hermine comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Hermine comes from Germanic roots, the feminine of Herman. The parts are old. An element meaning army, heri or hari, joins man. So the dictionary reading lands plainly as "army man," and in Polish as wojowniczka, a woman who fights.
German and French speakers both took up the name, and it kept a near cousin in Hermina, the variant that trails it by a single letter.
Two documented bearers give the name a face. Hermann Hesse handed it to a central figure in Steppenwolf (1927), and his Hermine teaches the narrator to dance and to want life again. Earlier, Hermine Reuss of Greiz married the deposed Wilhelm II in 1922.
The warrior sense here comes from the roots themselves. It was there at the start. Call a girl Hermine on a Polish class register and the older form Hermina sits one letter away.
How many people are named Hermine
1 in 704495 women in Poland is named Hermine. 32 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #7138 among female names.
Hermine as a middle name
Hermine is a first name for 32 women in Poland and a middle name for another 9, a 78/22 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2568th, between Hen (9) and Hermiona (9).
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#2566 Hasmik9
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#2567 Hen9
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#2568 Hermine9
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#2569 Hermiona9
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#2570 Hoai9