Harlem
A name transferred from New York, meaning "fertile flat meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 4,760 living Americans carry the first name Harlem. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Harlem today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harlem births was 2023 (408 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harlem. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Harlem with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Harlem is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.8K
~ 1 in 72,007 Americans
Peak year
2023
408 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,012
Tracked since 1975
Census
Harlem in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,363 people with the first name Harlem, which placed it at #6,702 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,702
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,363 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
73.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harlem
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlem is Black at 73.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.3%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Harlem described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Harlem at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American73.6% · 1,740
- Hispanic or Latino11.3% · 268
- Two or more races9.1% · 214
- White4.4% · 104
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Harlem
Harlem is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,795 total registrations, 3,199 (66.7%) were male and 1,596 (33.3%) were female.
Harlem as a male name
- Ranked #1,012 in 2024
- 220 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (254 births)
Harlem as a female name
- Ranked #1,298 in 2024
- 177 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (177 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Harlem on both sides of the split. Of the 2,365 people counted with this name, 1,666 were male (70.4%) and 699 were female (29.6%).
Popularity
Harlem: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harlem from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,401 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harlem by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Harlem during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harlems live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. California, Texas, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Harlem, while Nevada, Connecticut, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 110 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harlem
The name Harlem is a relatively modern name, thought to have originated in the late 19th or early 20th century from the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. The name Harlem itself is derived from the Dutch settlement of Haarlem, which was located in the area that would become known as Harlem.
The earliest recorded use of the name Harlem as a given name is believed to be in reference to the famous Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement that took place in Harlem, New York during the 1920s and 1930s. This movement saw a flourishing of African American art, literature, music, and culture, and the name Harlem likely gained popularity as a way to celebrate this important cultural event.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Harlem was Harlem Globetrotter, who was born in 1909 and was a member of the famous Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. The team, which was formed in 1926, helped to promote the name Harlem and its association with African American culture and athleticism.
Another notable individual with the name Harlem was Harlem Désir, a French politician who was born in 1959. Désir served as the Minister of European Affairs in France from 2014 to 2017, and his name was likely chosen as a nod to the cultural significance of Harlem in the United States.
In the world of music, Harlem Yu is a Taiwanese singer and songwriter who was born in 1984. Yu's name likely reflects the influence of African American culture and music on popular culture worldwide.
Harlem Shake, born in 1987, is an American rapper and comedian who helped to popularize the dance move known as the Harlem Shake in the early 2010s. His name directly references the neighborhood of Harlem and its cultural significance.
Finally, Harlem Lee is a Korean-American actress who was born in 1991. Her name reflects the continued influence of the cultural legacy of Harlem on popular culture and entertainment around the world.
People
Harlem + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harlem as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Harlem: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harlem?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,760 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harlem going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 72,007 US residents.
Is Harlem a common name?
We classify Harlem as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,795 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harlem most popular?
The single biggest year for Harlem was 2023, when 408 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harlem is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harlem in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,363 people with the name Harlem, or 0.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,702 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Harlem in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Harlem?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Harlem on both sides of the split. Of the 2,365 people counted with this name, 1,666 were male (70.4%) and 699 were female (29.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Harlem?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlem is Black at 73.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.3%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Harlem most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Harlem in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.6% (1,740 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Harlem in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harlem a male name?
Yes, 66.7% of people registered as Harlem in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Harlem still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harlem in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Harlem can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Harlem?
See how many people share the name Harlem on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.