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The myth of Hero and Leander was used and referenced extensively, even in Antiquity. The Byzantine poet Musaeus wrote a poem about the lovers and this poem was translated into Italian, Spanish and French and was widely known across Renaissance Europe. Playwright and poet Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) retold the myth in an epic poem Hero and Leander and Sir Walter Raleigh alluded to the story, in his The Ocean's Love to Cynthia.
Shakespeare references the myth several times in his plays: Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, Edward III, Othello and Romeo and Juliet. This shows us that he expected his audience to understand the reference and that the myth of Hero and Leander was widely known.
Shakespeare even went further and used Hero as a name for one of his characters in Much Ado About Nothing. His Hero is the only daughter of Leonato, the governor of Messina who becomes engaged to the dashing Claudio. Thanks to the scheming of Don John, Hero is unjustly accused of being unfaithful and is denounced by Claudio at their wedding. Her family fake her death and eventually the truth of her innocence is revealed, leading to a typical Shakespearean Comedy happily-ever-after with several characters coupling up.
As a real-life given name, however, Hero has always been rare. Even in Ancient Greece it was uncommon. The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names has found no record of Hero in use of a given name, though it should be noted that evidence for women's names is harder to come by in general.
In Britain, Hero has been in use since the 17th century, but has always been extremely rare. In the 19th century, Hero has some use, but was eclipsed by Herodias (the feminine form of Herod) and even Heroine.
Hero was also used for both boys and girls, as can be seen from the birth records of Hero Archibald Atwill and Hero Agnes Campbell in 1895. However, the birth records in general conceal the distribution of gender unless there is an obviously masculine or feminine middle name.
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Count |
Female middle names |
Male middle names |
1840s:
1850s:
1860s:
1870s:
1880s:
1890s:
1900s:
1910s:
1920s:
1930s:
1940s:
1950s:
1960s:
1970s: |
2
0
2
5
6
9
3
6
1
0
0
3
6
5 |
1
-
-
2
3
3
2
1
-
-
-
-
1
5 |
1
-
1
-
1
1
-
1
-
-
-
-
1
- |
 Since 1999, Hero has been in small use of girls in England and Wales, but has never ranked in the top 1000. Up until 2015 it had between 1 and 6 births per year, but by 2015 had risen to #2705 with 9 births.
Hero has ranked for boys in England and Wales since 2008 with no more than 4 births up to 2015.
In 2016, Hero had an equal number of 8 births for boys and girls. Hero for girls ranked #2966 and Hero for boys ranked #2556.
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