Harlie
Of uncertain etymology, potentially a feminine variant of Harry or Charles.
Name Census estimates that about 4,534 living Americans carry the first name Harlie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Harlie today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harlie births was 2001 (178 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harlie. 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 Harlie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Harlie started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
4.5K
~ 1 in 75,596 Americans
Peak year
2001
178 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2005 SSA rank
#2,462
Tracked since 1883
Census
Harlie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,623 people with the first name Harlie, which placed it at #4,920 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
#4,920
National first-name rank
People counted
3.6K
3,623 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harlie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlie is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Harlie 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 Harlie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.1% · 2,974
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 236
- Two or more races5.1% · 184
- Black or African American4.4% · 161
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 57
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Harlie
Harlie leans heavily female at 85.0% of total registrations, but 778 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Harlie as a male name
- Ranked #10,570 in 2005
- 6 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1918 (37 births)
Harlie as a female name
- Ranked #2,462 in 2024
- 73 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (173 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlie leans strongly female. 3,346 people counted with this name were female (92.3%), compared with 278 male bearers (7.7%).
Popularity
Harlie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harlie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,549 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Harlie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harlie 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 Harlie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harlies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, California, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Harlie, while Oregon, Maryland, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 76 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harlie
The name Harlie is a modern English variant of the name Harley, which has its origins in the Old English language. The name Harley is derived from the Old English words "hara" meaning "hare" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." Thus, the name Harley originally referred to a meadow or clearing where hares were found.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Harley dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a surname referring to a place name in Yorkshire, England. However, the name's use as a given name is not well documented until more recent centuries.
In the 16th century, the name Harley gained some prominence due to its association with the Harley family, a prominent English noble family. One notable member of this family was Sir Robert Harley (1579-1656), an English statesman and collector of manuscripts.
In the 17th century, another notable figure bearing the name Harley was Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (1661-1724), a British statesman and bibliophile who served as Lord Treasurer and played a significant role in the War of the Spanish Succession.
As the name Harlie is a more recent variant, there are fewer historical figures recorded with this exact spelling. However, one notable individual was Harlie E. Norville (1895-1971), an American businessman and politician who served as the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana from 1960 to 1964.
Another individual with the name Harlie was Harlie J. Sims (1907-1993), an American baseball pitcher who played in the Major Leagues for the St. Louis Browns and the Boston Red Sox in the 1930s.
Additionally, Harlie L. Gowdy (1901-1980) was an American politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas from 1943 to 1947.
While the name Harlie may not have a long and illustrious history like some other names, its origins in Old English and its connection to the natural world give it a unique and intriguing meaning.
People
Harlie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harlie 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
Harlie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harlie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,534 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harlie 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 75,596 US residents.
Is Harlie a common name?
We classify Harlie as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,200 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harlie most popular?
The single biggest year for Harlie was 2001, when 178 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harlie is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harlie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,623 people with the name Harlie, or 1.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,920 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 Harlie 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 Harlie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlie leans strongly female. 3,346 people counted with this name were female (92.3%), compared with 278 male bearers (7.7%). 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 Harlie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlie is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Harlie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harlie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (2,974 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 Harlie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harlie a female name?
Yes, 85.0% of people registered as Harlie in the SSA data are female. 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 Harlie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harlie 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 Harlie 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 many people have Harlie as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Harlie, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.