Humanverse

Harriet vs Hartman

American parents have registered 90,427 Harriets since 1880, against 100 Hartmans. Harriet is still ahead, with 226 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Harriet Hartman

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 2000, when Harriet had 37 and Hartman had 5.

Side by side

  Harriet Hartman
Total US births 90,427100
Most in one year 2,39510
Babies in 2025 226under 5
Estimated living today 24,00040
Median age today 7425
Peak year 19211916
Best rank 114th girls2,543rd boys
Rank in 2025 1,071stunranked
First recorded 18801916
Girls / boys 90,306 / 1210 / 100

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 Hartmans are over 25. That is 49 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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