Harlin
A masculine name derived from the English surname Harland, meaning "hare land".
Name Census estimates that about 1,045 living Americans carry the first name Harlin. It is a predominantly male name (94.3% of registrations). The average person named Harlin today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harlin births was 1924 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harlin. 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 Harlin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 327,995 Americans
Peak year
1924
45 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,602
Tracked since 1886
Census
Harlin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 943 people with the first name Harlin, which placed it at #12,972 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
#12,972
National first-name rank
People counted
943
943 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harlin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlin is White at 70.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.5%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Harlin 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 Harlin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.7% · 667
- Hispanic or Latino12.5% · 118
- Black or African American7.6% · 72
- Two or more races4.2% · 40
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 22
Gender
Gender distribution for Harlin
Harlin leans heavily male at 94.3% of total registrations, but 113 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Harlin as a male name
- Ranked #4,602 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (45 births)
Harlin as a female name
- Ranked #8,607 in 2024
- 12 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlin leans strongly male. 833 people counted with this name were male (88.4%), compared with 109 female bearers (11.6%).
Popularity
Harlin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harlin from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 332 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Harlin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harlin 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 Harlin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harlins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas recorded the most babies named Harlin, while Oklahoma, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harlin
The name Harlin finds its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the 8th century AD. It is believed to be a compound name, derived from the words "hær" meaning "army" and "lin" meaning "lake" or "pool." This suggests that the name may have initially referred to a person living near a lake or pond where armies would gather.
One of the earliest known references to the name Harlin can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record documenting events in Anglo-Saxon England. The entry from the year 871 AD mentions a person named Harlin, who was a soldier in the army of King Ethelred of Wessex.
During the Middle Ages, the name Harlin appeared sporadically in various records and manuscripts across England and parts of Scotland. One notable individual bearing this name was Harlin of Montfort, a Norman knight who fought in the First Crusade and participated in the siege of Jerusalem in 1099 AD.
In the 13th century, a Benedictine monk named Harlin of Canterbury gained some renown for his scholarly works on theology and philosophy. His treatise, "De Natura Rerum" (On the Nature of Things), was widely circulated among medieval scholars.
Fast-forwarding to the 16th century, a minor English nobleman named Harlin Wentworth is recorded as having served in the court of King Henry VIII. He is mentioned in historical accounts as being a member of the king's privy council.
Another individual of note was Harlin Brewster, an English Puritan who was among the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in North America. He arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 and played a significant role in establishing the colony's governance and religious practices.
Throughout history, the name Harlin has maintained a relatively low popularity compared to other given names. However, it has been carried by individuals from various walks of life, including soldiers, scholars, nobles, and pioneers, reflecting its enduring presence across different eras and cultures.
People
Harlin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harlin 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
Harlin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harlin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,045 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harlin 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 327,995 US residents.
Is Harlin a common name?
We classify Harlin as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,968 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harlin most popular?
The single biggest year for Harlin was 1924, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harlin is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harlin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 943 people with the name Harlin, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,972 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 Harlin 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 Harlin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harlin leans strongly male. 833 people counted with this name were male (88.4%), compared with 109 female bearers (11.6%). 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 Harlin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harlin is White at 70.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.5%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Harlin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harlin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.7% (667 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 Harlin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harlin a male name?
Yes, 94.3% of people registered as Harlin 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 Harlin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harlin 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 Harlin 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 Harlin?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.