Humanverse

Harlynn vs Harvey

American parents have registered 128,792 Harveys since 1880, against 1,310 Harlynns. Harvey is still ahead, with 1,400 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Harlynn Harvey

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

Harvey 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 Harvey had 875.

Side by side

  Harlynn Harvey
Total US births 1,310128,792
Most in one year 1652,294
Babies in 2025 861,400
Estimated living today 1,30049,000
Median age today 662
Peak year 20171921
Best rank 1,392nd girls87th boys
Rank in 2025 2,153rd251st
First recorded 20061880
Girls / boys 1,310 / 0867 / 127,925

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 Harveys alive today are over 62; half the Harlynns are over 6. That is 56 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 Harvey.