From Yiddish/German diminutive meaning 'little deer,' originally a pet form.
Herschel is a name of Yiddish and Ashkenazi Jewish origin, functioning as a diminutive of Hirsch, the Yiddish word for 'deer.' The deer — particularly the stag — held special significance in Jewish naming traditions, often associated with swiftness, grace, and the tribe of Naphtali, whom Jacob's blessing in Genesis describes as 'a swift deer.' Hirsch and its variants (Herschel, Hersh, Zvi in Hebrew) became among the most common masculine names in Ashkenazi communities across Central and Eastern Europe, carried by generations of families across the Pale of Settlement and ultimately into the diaspora.
The name's most historically consequential bearer in the English-speaking world may well be Sir William Herschel (1738–1822), the German-born British astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 — the first planet discovered in recorded history — along with two of its moons and two moons of Saturn. His sister Caroline Herschel became the first woman to discover a comet. The Herschel family name was immortalized further when William's son John Herschel continued his father's astronomical work, and the European Space Agency later named the Herschel Space Observatory in their honor.
The name thus carries a legacy of gazing literally beyond what had been seen before. In twentieth-century American culture, Herschel was borne by Herschel Walker, the Georgia-born running back who won the Heisman Trophy in 1982 and became one of college football's most celebrated players. The name peaked in American use in the early twentieth century and has since become a warm rarity, appreciated for its cultural depth and its hint of both the scholarly and the earthly.