Herbert
[ˈhɛʁbɛʁt]
The verdict
“Herbert” is a regularly-used German word, ranked #3,894 in German word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #3,894
- frequency rank, German
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - männlicher Vorname
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Herbert |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | [ˈhɛʁbɛʁt] |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,894 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Herbert” sits in German frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The German entry for Herbert is 7 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈhɛʁbɛʁt]. Corpus data places it at rank #3,894 in overall German word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "männlicher Vorname".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for Herbert, with forms such as "ehrbert", "hebrert", and "herbbert". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "Herbst", "Hubert", "Herder", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is Herbert, spelled H-E-R-B-E-R-T.
Definition
- 1männlicher Vorname
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ehrbert,hebrert,herbbert,herberrt,herbertt,herbetr,herbret,herebrt,herrbert,hherbert,hrebert
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Herbert - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "Herbert"?
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Using “Herbert”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is H-E-R-B-E-R-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈhɛʁbɛʁt] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Herbst” - see the side-by-side comparison. Herbert vs Herbst
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.