Harriet
A feminine feminine given name derived from the Germanic name Harrietta, meaning "estate ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 20,568 living Americans carry the first name Harriet. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Harriet today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harriet births was 1921 (2,395 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harriet. 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 Harriet with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Harriet is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 121 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Harriet is about 65 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Harriets were born before 1971.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,664 Americans
Peak year
1921
2,395 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1956 SSA rank
#1,157
Tracked since 1880
Census
Harriet in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 30,352 people with the first name Harriet, which placed it at #1,244 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
#1,244
National first-name rank
People counted
30K
30,352 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harriet
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harriet is White at 78.7%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.1%). 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 Harriet 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 Harriet at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.7% · 23,884
- Black or African American15.3% · 4,651
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 650
- Two or more races1.7% · 516
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 384
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 267
Gender
Gender distribution for Harriet
Out of the 90,197 babies given the name Harriet since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Harriet as a male name
- Ranked #4,167 in 1956
- 5 male births in 1956
- Peak: 1929 (11 births)
Harriet as a female name
- Ranked #1,157 in 2024
- 208 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (2,389 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harriet appears almost entirely female. Of the 30,360 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Harriet: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harriet 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 20,927 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harriet 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 Harriet during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harriets live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Harriet, while Alaska, New Mexico, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,482 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harriet
The name Harriet has its origins in the French language, derived from the Germanic name Henriette. The name is a feminine form of Henry, which comes from the Old German name Heimrich, meaning "home ruler" or "ruler of the household". This name was popular during the Middle Ages in various European countries.
The earliest recorded use of the name Harriet can be traced back to the 12th century in England, where it was a variant spelling of the name Henrietta. Over time, the name became more popularized and widespread throughout Europe and beyond.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Harriet was Harriet Tubman, an American abolitionist and political activist born in 1822. She played a crucial role in the Underground Railroad, helping to guide enslaved people to freedom and serving as a spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Another prominent Harriet in history was Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American abolitionist and author born in 1811. Her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a powerful work that exposed the brutality of slavery and is credited with helping to fuel the abolitionist movement in the United States.
In the realm of science, Harriet Brooks was a pioneering Canadian nuclear physicist born in 1876. She made significant contributions to the understanding of radioactivity and was the first woman to become a full professor at McGill University.
The name Harriet also had a royal association with Harriet, Duchess of Suffolk, an English noblewoman born in 1668. She served as a mistress to King George I and was known for her influence and patronage of the arts.
Harriet Martineau, born in 1802, was an English writer, philosopher, and social theorist who was a pioneering figure in the field of sociology. Her work on social issues and her advocacy for women's rights made a lasting impact on intellectual and political discourse.
Throughout history, the name Harriet has been associated with strong, influential women who have left their mark in various fields, from literature and science to activism and politics. Its enduring popularity reflects its rich historical roots and the remarkable individuals who have carried this name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Harriet
People
Harriet + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harriet 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
Harriet: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harriet?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,568 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harriet 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 16,664 US residents.
Is Harriet a common name?
We classify Harriet as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 90,197 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harriet most popular?
The single biggest year for Harriet was 1921, when 2,395 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harriet is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harriet in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 30,352 people with the name Harriet, or 10.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,244 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 Harriet 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 Harriet?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harriet appears almost entirely female. Of the 30,360 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Harriet?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harriet is White at 78.7%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.1%). 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 Harriet most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harriet in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.7% (23,884 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 Harriet in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harriet a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Harriet 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 Harriet still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harriet 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 Harriet 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 Harriet?
Want to know how many people share the name Harriet? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.