Harbor
A unisex name meaning a place providing shelter for ships.
Name Census estimates that about 1,163 living Americans carry the first name Harbor. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Harbor today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harbor births was 2018 (120 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harbor. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Harbor with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Harbor is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 294,716 Americans
Peak year
2018
120 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,456
Tracked since 2006
Census
Harbor in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 695 people with the first name Harbor, which placed it at #16,280 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#16,280
National first-name rank
People counted
695
695 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harbor
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harbor is White at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.6%) and Hispanic (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Harbor described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Harbor at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.9% · 590
- Two or more races5.6% · 39
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 11
- Black or African American1.3% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Harbor
Harbor is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,171 total registrations, 389 (33.2%) were male and 782 (66.8%) were female.
Harbor as a male name
- Ranked #3,820 in 2024
- 29 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (39 births)
Harbor as a female name
- Ranked #3,456 in 2024
- 45 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (81 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Harbor on both sides of the split. Of the 691 people counted with this name, 258 were male (37.3%) and 433 were female (62.7%).
Popularity
Harbor: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harbor from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 656 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Harbor remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harbor by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Harbor during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harbors live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Florida, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Harbor, while Virginia, Michigan, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harbor
Harbor is an English name derived from the Middle English word "herberwe," which means a shelter or lodging place. The name has its roots in the Old English word "herebeorg," which also means a place of shelter or refuge. This word is a compound of "here" (meaning army or host) and "beorg" (meaning a shelter or refuge).
In its earliest form, the word "herberwe" referred to a place where travelers, particularly soldiers or armies, could find lodging and shelter. Over time, the word evolved to refer to any kind of shelter or harbor, especially for ships at sea. The name Harbor likely emerged as a given name during the Middle Ages, reflecting the importance of ports and maritime trade in English-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Harbor is in the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a landowner named "Herbertus de Herberga" (Herbert of the Harbor) in Wiltshire, England. This suggests that the name was already in use by the late 11th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the given name Harbor. One of the earliest was Harbor Grace (c. 1570-1645), an English merchant and colonist who established the settlement of Harbor Grace in Newfoundland, Canada, in the early 17th century.
Another notable figure was Harbor Bartlett (1785-1868), an American shipbuilder and businessman from Massachusetts. He was responsible for constructing several ships, including the famous whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, which is now a museum ship.
In the 19th century, Harbor Emerson (1820-1892) was an American poet and lecturer who was part of the Transcendentalist movement. He was a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and contributed to the literary journal The Dial.
Harbor Putnam (1844-1919) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 38th Governor of Connecticut from 1901 to 1905. He was also a member of the United States House of Representatives.
In more recent times, Harbor Schechter (1903-1989) was an American artist and illustrator known for his works depicting scenes of everyday life in New York City.
While not a common name today, Harbor has a rich history rooted in the maritime and trading traditions of English-speaking cultures. Its etymology reflects the importance of shelter and safe harbors for travelers and seafarers throughout history.
People
Harbor + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harbor as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Harbor: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harbor?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,163 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harbor going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 294,716 US residents.
Is Harbor a common name?
We classify Harbor as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,171 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harbor most popular?
The single biggest year for Harbor was 2018, when 120 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harbor is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harbor in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 695 people with the name Harbor, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,280 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Harbor in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Harbor?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Harbor on both sides of the split. Of the 691 people counted with this name, 258 were male (37.3%) and 433 were female (62.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Harbor?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harbor is White at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.6%) and Hispanic (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Harbor most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harbor in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.9% (590 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Harbor in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harbor a female name?
Yes, 66.8% of people registered as Harbor in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Harbor still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harbor in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Harbor can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Harbor?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.