Humanverse

Harmonee vs Harriet

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

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Harmonee 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

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Harriet for 144 years and Harmonee for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Harmonee Harriet
Total US births 1,42790,427
Most in one year 892,395
Babies in 2025 34226
Estimated living today 1,40024,000
Median age today 1074
Peak year 20131921
Best rank 2,122nd girls114th girls
Rank in 2025 4,172nd1,071st
First recorded 19951880
Girls / boys 1,427 / 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 Harmonees are over 10. That is 64 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 Harriet.