Harry
A masculine name of French origin meaning "home ruler" or "ruler of the home".
Name Census estimates that about 129,995 living Americans carry the first name Harry. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Harry today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harry births was 1918 (9,938 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harry. 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 Harry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Harry is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,018 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Harry is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Harrys were born before 1970.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Harry have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
130K
~ 1 in 2,637 Americans
Peak year
1918
9,938 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2024 SSA rank
#777
Tracked since 1880
Census
Harry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 138,541 people with the first name Harry, which placed it at #408 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
#408
National first-name rank
People counted
139K
138,541 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
45.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harry is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Harry 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 Harry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.7% · 106,277
- Black or African American11.2% · 15,491
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 6,562
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 5,941
- Two or more races2.2% · 3,048
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,222
Gender
Gender distribution for Harry
Out of the 425,549 babies given the name Harry since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Harry as a male name
- Ranked #777 in 2024
- 322 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (9,896 births)
Harry as a female name
- Ranked #8,678 in 1988
- 8 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1928 (60 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harry appears almost entirely male. Of the 138,544 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Harry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 86,694 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
Harry 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 Harry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 22,649 | 98 | 22,747 |
| 1890s | 21,330 | 101 | 21,431 |
| 1900s | 17,906 | 97 | 18,003 |
| 1910s | 65,874 | 281 | 66,155 |
| 1920s | 86,183 | 511 | 86,694 |
| 1930s | 53,115 | 282 | 53,397 |
| 1940s | 56,245 | 202 | 56,447 |
| 1950s | 43,334 | 154 | 43,488 |
| 1960s | 22,669 | 125 | 22,794 |
| 1970s | 11,654 | 106 | 11,760 |
| 1980s | 7,525 | 61 | 7,586 |
| 1990s | 5,403 | 0 | 5,403 |
| 2000s | 4,311 | 0 | 4,311 |
| 2010s | 3,603 | 0 | 3,603 |
| 2020s | 1,730 | 0 | 1,730 |
Geography
Where Harrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Harry, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7,042 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harry
The name Harry is derived from the Germanic name Harinric, which is composed of the elements "hari" meaning army or warrior, and "ric" meaning power or ruler. The name first appeared in the 8th century and was widespread among the Franks and Norsemen.
The name gained popularity in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, as it was introduced by the Norman nobility. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Henry I of England, who reigned from 1100 to 1135 and was known as Harry le Gros (Harry the Fat).
In the Middle Ages, the name Harry was often used as a shortened form of the name Henry, which was derived from the Germanic name Heimrich. This name was borne by several English kings, including Henry II (1133-1189), Henry III (1207-1272), and Henry V (1387-1422), who was immortalized in Shakespeare's play of the same name.
During the Renaissance, the name Harry became more widely used as an independent given name. One notable bearer was Harry Hotspur (1364-1403), an English knight and military commander who fought in the Battle of Shrewsbury during the Wars of the Roses.
In the 17th century, the name Harry was associated with the House of Stuart, as it was the nickname of King Henry IV of France (1553-1610) and his son, King Henry IX (1594-1612), who were descendants of the Stuart monarchs of Scotland.
Other famous Harrys throughout history include Harry Houdini (1874-1926), the legendary Hungarian-American illusionist and escape artist; Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), the 33rd President of the United States; and Sir Harry Lauder (1870-1950), a Scottish singer and comedian who was a popular music hall performer in the early 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Harry
People
Harry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harry 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
Harry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 129,995 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harry 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 2,637 US residents.
Is Harry a common name?
We classify Harry as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 425,549 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harry most popular?
The single biggest year for Harry was 1918, when 9,938 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harry is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 138,541 people with the name Harry, or 45.87 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #408 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 Harry 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 Harry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Harry appears almost entirely male. Of the 138,544 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Harry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harry is White at 76.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.2%) and Hispanic (4.7%). 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 Harry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.7% (106,277 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 Harry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harry a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Harry 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 Harry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harry 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 Harry 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 called Harry?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.