Humanverse

Harlynn vs Harriet

American parents have registered 90,427 Harriets since 1880, against 1,310 Harlynns. Harriet is still ahead, with 226 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Harlynn against Harriet, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Harlynn Harriet

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Harriet has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2017, when Harlynn had 165 and Harriet had 211.

Side by side

  Harlynn Harriet
Total US births 1,31090,427
Most in one year 1652,395
Babies in 2025 86226
Estimated living today 1,30024,000
Median age today 674
Peak year 20171921
Best rank 1,392nd girls114th girls
Rank in 2025 2,153rd1,071st
First recorded 20061880
Girls / boys 1,310 / 090,306 / 121

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Harriets alive today are over 74; half the Harlynns are over 6. That is 68 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Harlynn and Harriet.