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Haroldean vs Harvey

American parents have registered 128,792 Harveys since 1880, against 19 Haroldeans. Harvey is still ahead, with 1,400 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Haroldean against Harvey, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Haroldean Harvey

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Harvey has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1932, when Haroldean had 7 and Harvey had 2,047.

Side by side

  Haroldean Harvey
Total US births 19128,792
Most in one year 72,294
Babies in 2025 under 51,400
Estimated living today 349,000
Median age today 9262
Peak year 19331921
Best rank 3,268th boys87th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked251st
First recorded 19321880
Girls / boys 7 / 12867 / 127,925

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Haroldeans alive today are over 92; half the Harveys are over 62. That is 30 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Haroldean and Harvey.