Humanverse

Harriet vs Haruko

American parents have registered 90,427 Harriets since 1880, against 680 Harukos. Harriet is still ahead, with 226 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Harriet Haruko

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 2010, when Harriet had 56 and Haruko had 5.

Side by side

  Harriet Haruko
Total US births 90,427680
Most in one year 2,39559
Babies in 2025 226under 5
Estimated living today 24,00030
Median age today 7491
Peak year 19211919
Best rank 114th girls917th girls
Rank in 2025 1,071stunranked
First recorded 18801908
Girls / boys 90,306 / 121680 / 0

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 Harukos alive today are over 91; half the Harriets are over 74. That is 17 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: Harriet and Haruko.