Harold
Feminine · “army ruler”
Harold is given to boys far more often — 551,632 boys against 2,648 girls since 1880. See Harold as a boy name
Harold is the only name of an English king that the Normans did not adopt. They took Edward, they took Henry and Richard and John and William into the royal line, and they never once used the name of the man they killed at Hastings.
How old is the name Harold?
Harold first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Harold alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 900 people named Harold are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Harold most popular?
Harold peaked in 1929, reaching #706 nationally. See the whole 1929 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Haraldr to Harold
The story of Harold
Harold Godwinson was king for nine months and fought two full-scale invasions in three weeks. He destroyed a Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, marched two hundred and fifty miles south, and lost at Hastings to a force that had landed while he was gone. The name went quiet in England for centuries afterwards and came back in the Victorian revival, when English families began deliberately reviving Anglo-Saxon and Norse names; it reached America in that wave and was near the top of the lists by the early twentieth century. Its ending then detached and produced Darold, Garold and Jerold.
Meaning
army ruler
The Norse original joins a word for an army to one for a ruler. English had its own version of the same compound before the Danes arrived, and the two fell together.
How the name formed
- Haraldr
- Harold
Related forms: Harald · Harald · Harald · Harold
Pronouncing Harold
HAR-uld
Two syllables with the weight at the front, the second reduced to a hum. Norwegian and Danish say HAH-ralt, giving the second syllable full value.
Nicknames for Harold
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 192691 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #706reached in 1929
- Change vs 1989
- 0.0%6 in 2004, from 6
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.
Harold in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Harald in Norwegian — same name
- Harald in Danish — same name
- Harald in German — same name
- Harold in French — same name
Harolds among us
people named Harold are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Harold sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- It is a standing name across Scandinavia and Germany as well as English.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- Hal is a short form with six centuries of English use behind it.
- It is strongly associated with the first half of the twentieth century.
- The king who carried it is famous chiefly for losing, which some families think about.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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What they receive
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Harold
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Harolds 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 Harold are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Harold in 2025?
- Harold is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Harold with classmates?
- Harold will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Helen#461 · Heather#1261 · Hannah#56 · Hazel#21 · Holly#416 · Hailey#104 · Haley#861 · Heidi#340
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Harold? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Harold and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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