Hari
Masculine · “tawny”
Hari is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 871 boys against 14 girls since 1880.
Hari is one of the thousand names of Vishnu, and the word itself means tawny or green — a color word doing duty as a divine name.
How old is the name Hari?
Hari first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Hari alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 900 people named Hari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hari most popular?
Hari peaked in 2002, reaching #2882 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 1,514 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hari to Hari
The story of Hari
Sanskrit color words do not map onto English ones, and hari covers a range from tawny yellow through green that English has no single term for. It became one of Vishnu's principal epithets — Hari Om and Hari Krishna are standing invocations — and it also names the lion, the horse and the monkey, all of which the range fits. The name is used across India and Nepal.
Meaning
tawny, yellow-green; a name of Vishnu
From Sanskrit hari, a color word covering tawny, yellow and green; it is one of Vishnu's standard epithets and also names a lion, a horse and a monkey in different contexts. The Vishnu Sahasranama lists it among his thousand names.
How the name formed
- hari
- Hari
Related forms: Hari · Hari · Hari
Pronouncing Hari
HUH-ree
Two syllables, first stressed. Every letter is sounded.
Nicknames for Hari
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1968
- Most boys named
- 202437 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2882reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- −37.8%23 in 2025, from 37
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Hari in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hari in Hindi — transliteration
- Hari in Sanskrit — same name
- Hari in Nepali — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Haris among us
people named Hari are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Hari
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hari
- #4396
- Hari on the 2025 chart
- #599
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hari went to 23 boys in 2025, but Harry is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 352, which makes it the 599th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,797 places above the chart.
- Harry329
- Hari23
About 1 boy in 4,852 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 74,264 for Hari itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nolin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hari's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nolin climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nolin's path sketches the road Hari is walking now.
Hari sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Hari beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hari in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely interesting color range behind it.
- Four letters and two syllables, about as easy to write as a name gets.
- Recognized across India and Nepal without explanation.
- It is a divine epithet, which carries weight in Hindu communities.
- English speakers will hear Harry, which is a separate name.
- Hari, Harri and Harry are all close in an American ear.
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What they receive
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Hari
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Haris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Hari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hari?
- Hari is one of 2 recorded spellings. Harry is the more common one — 329 births in 2025 against 23 for Hari.
- How popular is the name Hari in 2025?
- Hari ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hari?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Hari — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hari with classmates?
- Hari will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hari
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hari? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hari and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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