Harlan
Little fighter or champion, a masculine name of English origin.
Name Census estimates that about 14,169 living Americans carry the first name Harlan. It is a predominantly male name (98.3% of registrations). The average person named Harlan today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harlan births was 1924 (519 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harlan. 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 Harlan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Harlan is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 463 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 24,190 Americans
Peak year
1924
519 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#666
Tracked since 1880
Census
Harlan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,603 people with the first name Harlan, which placed it at #2,126 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
#2,126
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
12,603 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harlan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlan is White at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Black (5.4%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Harlan 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 Harlan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.9% · 10,696
- Black or African American5.4% · 677
- Two or more races3.4% · 425
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 382
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 235
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 188
Gender
Gender distribution for Harlan
Harlan leans heavily male at 98.3% of total registrations, but 463 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Harlan as a male name
- Ranked #666 in 2024
- 411 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (519 births)
Harlan as a female name
- Ranked #3,522 in 2024
- 44 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (50 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlan leans strongly male. 12,295 people counted with this name were male (97.6%), compared with 305 female bearers (2.4%).
Popularity
Harlan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harlan from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 4,184 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Harlan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harlan 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 Harlan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harlans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Minnesota, Iowa, California recorded the most babies named Harlan, while Utah, Nevada, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 442 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harlan
The name Harlan originates from Old English, derived from the words "here" meaning army and "land" meaning land or estate. It was initially a surname given to someone who lived near an army encampment or military base. The name can also be traced back to the Old Norse word "hær" meaning army.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in England, the name Harlan was primarily used as a surname. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a landowner named Herlan in Lincolnshire.
In the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity as a given name, particularly among the nobility and landowners. It was seen as a strong and masculine name, reflecting the military and territorial connotations of its origins.
Harlan appeared in various historical records and texts throughout the centuries. In the 13th century, the name was mentioned in the "Annals of Winchester," a chronicle of events in the city of Winchester, England.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Harlan was Harlan of Bassingham, a 13th-century English nobleman and landowner from Lincolnshire. He was known for his involvement in local politics and disputes with the church.
In the 16th century, Harlan Hubbard, an English explorer and author, gained fame for his travels and writings about the New World. He was born in 1585 and is known for his book "A Relation of a Voyage to the Continent of America," published in 1625.
During the American Revolutionary War, Harlan Mudd (1742-1818) was a prominent figure who served as a colonel in the Continental Army. He played a significant role in several battles and was later appointed as a judge in Kentucky.
In the 19th century, Harlan F. Stone (1872-1946) was a notable American lawyer and jurist who served as the 12th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1941 to 1946.
Another prominent individual was Harlan Ellison (1934-2018), an acclaimed American writer and screenwriter best known for his works in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He won numerous awards, including multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, for his influential stories and essays.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Harlan
People
Harlan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harlan 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
Harlan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harlan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14,169 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harlan 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 24,190 US residents.
Is Harlan a common name?
We classify Harlan as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,489 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harlan most popular?
The single biggest year for Harlan was 1924, when 519 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harlan is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harlan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,603 people with the name Harlan, or 4.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,126 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 Harlan 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 Harlan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlan leans strongly male. 12,295 people counted with this name were male (97.6%), compared with 305 female bearers (2.4%). 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 Harlan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlan is White at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Black (5.4%) and Two or More Races (3.4%). 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 Harlan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harlan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.9% (10,696 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 Harlan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harlan a male name?
Yes, 98.3% of people registered as Harlan in the SSA data are male. 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 Harlan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harlan 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 Harlan 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 people are named Harlan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.