Harrold
Powerful military commander; derived from Old English heara "army" and weald "ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 281 living Americans carry the first name Harrold. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Harrold today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harrold births was 1923 (46 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harrold. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Harrold is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Harrolds were born before 1960.
People living today
281
~ 1 in 1,219,766 Americans
Peak year
1923
46 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
1988 SSA rank
#7,709
Tracked since 1898
Census
Harrold in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 512 people with the first name Harrold, which placed it at #20,244 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
#20,244
National first-name rank
People counted
512
512 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harrold
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harrold is White at 63.5%. The next largest groups are Black (21.5%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Harrold 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 Harrold at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.5% · 325
- Black or African American21.5% · 110
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 20
- Two or more races3.7% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 13
Popularity
Harrold: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harrold from the 1890s through to the 1980s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 326 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harrold 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 Harrold during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harrolds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Harrold, while Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harrold
The name Harrold is of Old English origin, derived from the Germanic elements "haru" meaning "army" and "waldan" meaning "to rule" or "to lead." It is believed to have emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th century.
The name was originally spelled as "Hereweald" or "Herewald" and was borne by several Anglo-Saxon rulers and noblemen. One of the earliest recorded examples is Hereweald, King of the Isle of Wight in the late 7th century.
In the Middle Ages, the name evolved into various spellings such as "Harold," "Harrold," and "Harold." It gained prominence when Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, became the last Anglo-Saxon King of England in 1066 before being defeated by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.
The name Harrold can also be found in ancient Norse mythology, where it is the name of a legendary warrior and hero. In the Icelandic sagas, Harrold is depicted as a brave and skilled fighter who undertakes daring adventures.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Harrold. One of the earliest was Harrold I of Denmark (c. 770-840), a Viking King who ruled parts of modern-day Denmark and Sweden. Another was Harrold Hardrada (c. 1015-1066), a Norwegian king and one of the last great Viking leaders, who led an invasion of England in 1066.
In the medieval period, Harrold Fairhair (c. 850-933) was a Norwegian king who unified the country and established a powerful monarchy. Harrold Bluetooth (c. 935-986) was a Viking king who introduced Christianity to Denmark and parts of Norway and Sweden.
Other notable individuals with the name Harrold include Harrold Wilson (1916-1995), a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976, and Harrold Pinter (1930-2008), a British playwright, screenwriter, and actor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005.
People
Harrold + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harrold 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
Harrold: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harrold?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 281 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harrold 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 1,219,766 US residents.
Is Harrold a common name?
We classify Harrold as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,103 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harrold most popular?
The single biggest year for Harrold was 1923, when 46 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harrold is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harrold in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 512 people with the name Harrold, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,244 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 Harrold 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 Harrold?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harrold appears almost entirely male. Of the 518 people counted with this name, 99.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Harrold?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harrold is White at 63.5%. The next largest groups are Black (21.5%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Harrold most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harrold in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.5% (325 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 Harrold in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harrold a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Harrold 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 Harrold still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harrold 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 Harrold 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 Harrold?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.