Harper
Harper was given to 6,792 girls in 2025, #16 among girls’ names; 145,832 Americans have been recorded with it since 1881 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 144,000 Americans named Harper and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Harper by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Harper mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Harper is “a female given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.”
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
Inherited from Middle English Harpere.
/ˈhɑɹpɚ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Harper?
#16 among girls’ names, 2025
Harper fell from #10 in 2015 to #16 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 5.8 to 4.2 per 1,000.
11,102 babies in 2016, the peak
Harper peaked in 2016, when 11,102 babies were given it (10,803 girls, #11 among girls’ names). The 6,869 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 62% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6,792 | #16 | 4.2 |
| 2024 | 7,394 | #12 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 7,799 | #11 | 4.9 |
| 2022 | 8,227 | #11 | 5.0 |
| 2021 | 8,448 | #10 | 5.1 |
| 2020 | 8,849 | #10 | 5.5 |
| 2019 | 10,497 | #9 | 6.3 |
| 2018 | 10,646 | #9 | 6.3 |
| 2017 | 10,524 | #11 | 6.1 |
| 2016 | 10,803 | #11 | 6.1 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 10,311 | #10 | 5.8 |
| 2014 | 9,619 | #11 | 5.4 |
| 2013 | 8,284 | #16 | 4.7 |
| 2012 | 7,199 | #24 | 4.1 |
| 2011 | 4,676 | #54 | 2.7 |
| 2010 | 2,634 | #120 | 1.5 |
| 2009 | 1,904 | #173 | 1.0 |
| 2008 | 1,128 | #296 | 0.60 |
| 2007 | 729 | #440 | 0.38 |
| 2006 | 597 | #510 | 0.31 |
| 2005 | 363 | #743 | 0.20 |
| 2004 | 274 | #887 | 0.15 |
| 2003 | 200 | #1,102 | 0.11 |
| 2002 | 164 | #1,224 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 176 | #1,171 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 136 | #1,368 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 112 | #1,525 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 93 | #1,713 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 86 | #1,757 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 107 | #1,502 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 53 | #2,427 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 34 | #3,315 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,431 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 21 | #4,736 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 22 | #4,544 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 12 | #7,022 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,135 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,800 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,253 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 8 | #7,989 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,460 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #10,991 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 5 | #10,837 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,541 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,639 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,490 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 10 | #6,097 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,154 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,226 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,426 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 9 | #5,922 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,769 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Harper a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 145,832 Americans recorded as Harper, 95% are girls and 5% boys. In 2025 it went to 6,792 girls and 77 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Harper: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Harper, and how old are they?
144,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 145,832 Americans ever recorded as Harper. The median Harper alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 92,376 people named Harper (87,204 women and girls, 5,172 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 98,505 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 43 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 114 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 172 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 541 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 23,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 120,000 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Harper born?
The states with the most babies named Harper are Texas, California and Florida, with 19% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 549 | #39 | 0.7× |
| California | 430 | #62 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 320 | #38 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 301 | #11 | 1.1× |
| New York | 296 | #37 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 288 | #11 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 275 | #14 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 235 | #10 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 226 | #15 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 220 | #8 | 1.3× |
Where Harper is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Harper is most over-represented in South Dakota: since 1910 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Harper with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Harper
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Harper and names like it
- Compare Harper and AdelynnBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sHarper peaked in 2016.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Harper since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Harper: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Harper.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Harper alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with HMost given first.