Harlow
Derived from an Old English surname meaning "rock hill" or "army hill".
Name Census estimates that about 14,302 living Americans carry the first name Harlow. It sits at #293 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Harlow today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harlow births was 2023 (1,455 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harlow. 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 Harlow with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Harlow started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Harlow is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 23,965 Americans
Peak year
2023
1,455 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#293
Tracked since 1882
Census
Harlow in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,562 people with the first name Harlow, which placed it at #2,971 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
#2,971
National first-name rank
People counted
7.6K
7,562 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harlow
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlow is White at 75.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.1%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Harlow 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 Harlow at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.8% · 5,735
- Hispanic or Latino11.1% · 843
- Two or more races8.4% · 632
- Black or African American2.8% · 212
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 84
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 56
Gender
Gender distribution for Harlow
Harlow leans heavily female at 83.9% of total registrations, but 2,500 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Harlow as a male name
- Ranked #1,251 in 2024
- 158 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (182 births)
Harlow as a female name
- Ranked #293 in 2024
- 1,079 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (1,278 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlow leans strongly female. 6,714 people counted with this name were female (88.7%), compared with 852 male bearers (11.3%).
Popularity
Harlow: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harlow from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,017 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harlow 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 Harlow during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harlows live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Harlow, while Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 271 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harlow
The name Harlow is an English given name with origins dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era. It is derived from the Old English words "hær" meaning "rock, stone" and "hlāw" meaning "hill, mound." Together, these elements suggest the name Harlow may have been used to describe someone who lived near a rocky hill or mound.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Harlow can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of land and property ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry lists a place called "Harlow" in the county of Essex.
In the medieval period, the name Harlow was primarily associated with various locations in England, such as Harlow in Essex, Harlow Hill in Yorkshire, and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire. These places likely took their names from the Old English words that formed the basis of the personal name.
One notable historical figure with the name Harlow was Sir Robert Harlow (1584-1654), an English politician and Member of Parliament during the reign of King Charles I. He served as the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1629 to 1640.
Another individual of note was John Harlow (1786-1853), an American Baptist minister and educator who served as the first president of Waterville College, now known as Colby College, in Maine.
In the realm of literature, Harlow Wilcox (1900-1949) was an American author and playwright best known for his work "The Egg and I," a semi-autobiographical novel about life on a chicken farm in the Pacific Northwest.
The name Harlow also gained prominence in the 20th century with the rise of Hollywood actress Jean Harlow (1911-1937), whose birth name was Harlean Harlow Carpenter. She was a leading sex symbol and one of the most popular actresses of the 1930s, known for her platinum blonde hair and distinctive voice.
Another notable figure was Harlow Shapley (1885-1972), an American astronomer and mathematician who played a crucial role in establishing the scale of the Milky Way galaxy and the existence of other galaxies beyond the Milky Way.
People
Harlow + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harlow 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
Harlow: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harlow?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14,302 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harlow 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 23,965 US residents.
Is Harlow a common name?
We classify Harlow 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, 15,501 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harlow most popular?
The single biggest year for Harlow was 2023, when 1,455 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harlow is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harlow in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,562 people with the name Harlow, or 2.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,971 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 Harlow 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 Harlow?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlow leans strongly female. 6,714 people counted with this name were female (88.7%), compared with 852 male bearers (11.3%). 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 Harlow?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlow is White at 75.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.1%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Harlow most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harlow in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.8% (5,735 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 Harlow in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harlow a female name?
Yes, 83.9% of people registered as Harlow 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 Harlow still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harlow 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 Harlow 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 called Harlow?
You can see how many Americans are named Harlow on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.