Harrington
Of English origin meaning "Hare's Hill" or "Son of Harry".
Name Census estimates that about 218 living Americans carry the first name Harrington. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Harrington today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harrington births was 2018 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harrington. 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 Harrington with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
218
~ 1 in 1,572,268 Americans
Peak year
2018
13 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,231
Tracked since 1912
Census
Harrington in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 363 people with the first name Harrington, which placed it at #25,907 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
#25,907
National first-name rank
People counted
363
363 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harrington
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harrington is White at 43.3%. The next largest groups are Black (34.7%) and Hispanic (9.4%). 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 Harrington 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 Harrington at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.3% · 157
- Black or African American34.7% · 126
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 34
- Two or more races5.8% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.3% · 12
Popularity
Harrington: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harrington from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 74 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Harrington remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harrington 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 Harrington during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harringtons live
Origin
Meaning and history of Harrington
The name Harrington has its origins in the English language and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "hara" meaning "hare" and "tun" meaning "town" or "settlement." This suggests that the name initially referred to a town or village where hares were plentiful.
During the medieval period, Harrington was primarily used as a surname, indicating a person's place of origin or residence. The earliest recorded instance of the name dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a place called "Harintone" in Northamptonshire, England.
While there are no direct references to the name Harrington in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the name gained prominence during the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. Many Norman nobles adopted English place names as their surnames, and Harrington became a popular choice among them.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir Robert de Harrington, who lived during the reign of King John in the early 13th century. Another notable figure was Sir John Harrington, an English diplomat and writer who served under Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century and is best known for his work "A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax."
In the 17th century, Edward Harrington (1624-1700) was an English philosopher and political theorist who advocated for a form of government known as "The Commonwealth of Oceana." His ideas influenced the development of modern republicanism and democratic thought.
During the American Revolutionary War, Josiah Harrington (1744-1815) served as a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and played a crucial role in the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
In the realm of literature, Henry Harrington (1789-1853) was an English novelist and playwright who wrote several popular works in the early 19th century, including "The Algebraist's Gambit" and "The Vestry Question."
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have borne the name Harrington throughout history. While the name may have originated as a reference to a town inhabited by hares, it has since become a celebrated given name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Harrington + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harrington 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
Harrington: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harrington?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 218 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harrington 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 1,572,268 US residents.
Is Harrington a common name?
We classify Harrington as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 330 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harrington most popular?
The single biggest year for Harrington was 2018, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harrington is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harrington in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 363 people with the name Harrington, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,907 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 Harrington 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 Harrington?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harrington leans strongly male. 343 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 24 female bearers (6.5%). 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 Harrington?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harrington is White at 43.3%. The next largest groups are Black (34.7%) and Hispanic (9.4%). 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 Harrington most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harrington in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.3% (157 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 Harrington in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harrington a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Harrington 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 Harrington still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harrington 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 Harrington 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 are named Harrington?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.