Harper
A surname name of English origin meaning "one who plays the harp".
Roughly 137,171 people in the United States go by the first name Harper, which ranks #12 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It is a predominantly female name (95.2% of registrations). The average person named Harper today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harper births was 2016 (11,101 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Kaylee (137,162).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harper. 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 Harper with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Harper started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Although Harper is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 6,692 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Harper 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
137K
~ 1 in 2,499 Americans
Peak year
2016
11,101 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12
Tracked since 1881
Census
Harper in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 92,380 people with the first name Harper, which placed it at #579 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
#579
National first-name rank
People counted
92K
92,380 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
30.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harper
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harper is White at 83.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.0%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Harper 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 Harper at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.8% · 77,376
- Two or more races6.0% · 5,498
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 4,872
- Black or African American3.1% · 2,852
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 1,274
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 508
Gender
Gender distribution for Harper
Harper leans heavily female at 95.2% of total registrations, but 6,692 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Harper as a male name
- Ranked #1,791 in 2024
- 91 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (416 births)
Harper as a female name
- Ranked #12 in 2024
- 7,370 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (10,802 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harper leans strongly female. 87,204 people counted with this name were female (94.4%), compared with 5,172 male bearers (5.6%).
Popularity
Harper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harper 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 88,375 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Harper remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harper 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 Harper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harpers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Harper, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,654 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harper
The given name Harper has its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the Anglo-Saxon era. It is derived from the occupational term "hearpere," which referred to a skilled player of the harp or lyre. This ancient stringed instrument held significant cultural and artistic importance in early English societies.
During the Middle Ages, the name Harper was commonly used as a surname, indicating a person's profession or association with the craft of harp-making or harp-playing. As surnames became more established, some individuals adopted Harper as a given name, particularly in regions where the occupation was prevalent.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Harper as a given name can be found in the 13th century. In 1263, a man named Harper de Winton was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Cambridgeshire, England. This historical record suggests that the name was already in use as a personal identifier during that time.
In the realm of literature, the name Harper appears in the works of renowned English playwright William Shakespeare. In his play "The Taming of the Shrew," one of the characters is named Harper, further solidifying the name's presence in the Elizabethan era.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Harper:
1. Harper Lee (1926-2016), the American novelist best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "To Kill a Mockingbird."
2. Harper Connelly, a fictional character from the supernatural mystery book series by Charlaine Harris.
3. Harper Regan, a character from the eponymous play by British playwright Simon Stephens, which explores themes of family and responsibility.
4. Harper Linde, an American singer-songwriter and musician who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.
5. Harper Calloway, a character from the critically acclaimed television series "The Wire," portrayed by Gbenga Akinnagbe.
While the name Harper has roots in occupational surnames, it has evolved to become a highly popular given name in its own right, particularly in English-speaking countries. The name's connection to the harp and its artistic connotations have contributed to its enduring appeal and usage throughout history.
People
Harper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harper 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
Harper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 137,171 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harper 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 2,499 US residents.
Is Harper a common name?
We classify Harper as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 138,906 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harper most popular?
The single biggest year for Harper was 2016, when 11,101 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harper 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 Harper in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 92,380 people with the name Harper, or 30.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #579 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 Harper 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 Harper?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harper leans strongly female. 87,204 people counted with this name were female (94.4%), compared with 5,172 male bearers (5.6%). 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 Harper?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harper is White at 83.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.0%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Harper most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harper in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.8% (77,376 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 Harper in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harper a female name?
Yes, 95.2% of people registered as Harper 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 Harper still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harper 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 Harper 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 common is the name Harper?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.