Harland
Masculine · “hare land”
Harland is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 5,813 boys against 24 girls since 1880.
Harland is the hare's land — an Old English place name for the ground where hares ran, later a surname and then a given name.
How old is the name Harland?
Harland first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Harland alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 2,200 people named Harland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Harland most popular?
Harland peaked in 1918, reaching #474 nationally. Today it ranks #2035, 1,561 places below that high. See the whole 1918 chart.
Where it comes from
From hara land to Harland
The story of Harland
Harland is an English surname from places of that name in Yorkshire, and it crossed to America early. Harland Sanders founded a fried chicken company and became a trademark himself. The name appears in the American registers in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
hare land
From the Old English hara, 'hare', and land. A second reading takes the first element as har, 'grey' or 'boundary stone' — so boundary land. Both are ordinary Old English and both are attributed for the surname. The land element is settled either way.
How the name formed
- hara land
- Harland
Related forms: Harlan · Harlin
Pronouncing Harland
HAR-lund
Two syllables, stress on the first. Harland and Harlan are said nearly identically.
Nicknames for Harland
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 1918155 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #474reached in 1918
- Change vs 2022
- +28.1%73 in 2025, from 57
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.
Harland in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Harlan in English — spelling variant
- Harlin in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Missouri.
Harlands among us
people named Harland are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 23,398 born in 2025 was named Harland
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rogers test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Harland's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rogers climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rogers's path sketches the road Harland is walking now.
Harland 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
Where Harland is headed
Harland should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Harland beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Harland in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The hare-land meaning is concrete and belongs to real Yorkshire places.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Harlan is available as a shorter and commoner alternative.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- Harlan is commoner in American use.
- The first element is genuinely disputed.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Harland
Masculine · #2035 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Harlands are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Harland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Harland in 2025?
- Harland ranks #2035 among US boy names in 2025, with 73 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Harland?
- About 1 in every 23,398 US boys born in 2025 was named Harland — 73 in all.
- Will my child share the name Harland with classmates?
- Harland will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Harland
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hudsyn#2035 · Ezrael#2035 · Tylin#2035 · Aamir#2035 · Casimir#2035 · Mavrick#2035 · Armin#2035 · Arin#2035
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Harland? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Harland and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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