The story in the numbers

423,531 boys have been named Harry in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 9,896 births — 0.98% of all boys recorded that year.

The name has all but left use: 322 births in 2024, against 9,896 at the peak.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1929, and the 1920s alone account for 20%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 78 of them in the top 100 and 7 in the top 10.

It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,018 girls have also been given it, 0.47% of the total.

Rank among boys, year by year

By decade

Decade

boys named Harry

22,649

21,330

17,906

65,874

86,183

53,115

56,245

43,334

22,669

11,654

7,525

5,403

4,311

3,603

1,730

In 1918, its biggest year

Harry was the 20th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1918 were John, William, James, Robert and Charles. See all of 1918.

Names that rose and fell with Harry

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.