南阳市
Lady He was from Wan County (), Nanyang Commandery (), which is in present-day Nanyang, Henan. Unlike most Han dynasty empresses, she was not of noble birth; her father, He Zhen (), was a butcher. Her mother's maiden family name is unknown, but her given name was "Xing" (). She had two half-brothers, He Jin and He Miao (), and a younger sister who married the (adopted) son of the eunuch Zhang Rang.