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Harmonee vs Harper

American parents have registered 145,832 Harpers since 1880, against 1,427 Harmonees. Harper is still ahead, with 6,869 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Harmonee against Harper, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Harmonee Harper

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

Harper has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1995, when Harmonee had 8 and Harper had 72.

Side by side

  Harmonee Harper
Total US births 1,427145,832
Most in one year 8911,102
Babies in 2025 346,869
Estimated living today 1,400144,000
Median age today 108
Peak year 20132016
Best rank 2,122nd girls11th girls
Rank in 2025 4,172nd16th
First recorded 19951881
Girls / boys 1,427 / 0139,063 / 6,769

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 Harmonees alive today are over 10; half the Harpers are over 8. That is 2 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: Harmonee and Harper.