We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally propagation dynamics of surface gravity water-wave pulses, having Hermite-Gauss envelopes. We show that these waves propagate self-similarly along an 18-m wave tank, preserving their general Hermite-Gauss envelopes in both the linear and the nonlinear regimes. The measured surface elevation wave groups enable observing the envelope phase evolution of both nonchirped and linearly frequency chirped Hermite-Gauss pulses, hence allowing us to measure Gouy phase shifts of high-order Hermite-Gauss pulses for the first time. Finally, when increasing pulse amplitude, nonlinearity becomes essential and the second harmonic of Hermite-Gauss waves was observed. We further show that these generated second harmonic bound waves still exhibit self-similar Hermite-Gauss shapes along the tank.