Harun
Masculine
Harun is the Arabic form of a name older than Arabic — the brother of Moses, a prophet in the Qur'an as well as a priest in the Hebrew Bible. It is one of a small set of names that belong equally to two scriptures, and it is said almost the same way in both.
How old is the name Harun?
Harun first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Harun is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Harun are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Harun most popular?
Harun peaked in 2022, reaching #2269 nationally. Today it ranks #2718, 449 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aharon to Harun
The story of Harun
Aharon is Moses' elder brother in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the priests; Harun is one of the prophets named in the Qur'an, in the same role. The Arabic form spread with Islam across North Africa, Anatolia, the Balkans, Persia, South Asia and the Indonesian archipelago, which is why it turns up today in Turkish, Bosnian, Urdu, Malay and Somali families alike. Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad in the eighth and ninth centuries, carried it into literature too: his court is where the frame story of the Thousand and One Nights is set.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name is very old and does not break down cleanly in either Hebrew or Arabic, which is usually a sign that it came from somewhere else first. An Egyptian source has been argued for the biblical Aharon, given where the story is set; a Hebrew reading as 'mountain' has also been offered. Neither has carried the field. What is documented is the name itself, in continuous use for something over three thousand years.
How the name formed
- Aharon
- Harun
Related forms: Aaron · Aharon · Harun · Haaruun · Harun
Pronouncing Harun
hah-ROON
Two syllables with the stress on the second and a long oo. The initial h is fully pronounced, not breathed away. English speakers who know Aaron sometimes reach for HARE-un, which is a different name's saying entirely.
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
- 1967
- Most boys named
- 202263 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2269reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −23.0%47 in 2025, from 61
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.
Harun in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aaron in English — same name
- Aharon in Hebrew — same name
- Harun in Arabic — transliteration
- Haaruun in Somali — spelling variant
- Harun in Indonesian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, New York, Texas.
Haruns among us
people named Harun are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 36,342 born in 2025 was named Harun
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 Pearce test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Harun's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pearce climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pearce's path sketches the road Harun is walking now.
Harun 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 Harun is headed
Harun 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.
Harun beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Harun in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, cleanly spelled, and pronounceable in English without adjustment.
- Recognized across a very wide part of the world — Arabic, Turkish, Bosnian, Urdu, Malay and Somali speakers all know it.
- Aaron stands beside it as the familiar English cousin, which gives English speakers a hook.
- Its meaning is genuinely not established, so a parent who wants a name that means something specific will not find it here.
- English speakers will occasionally read it as a variant of Aaron and say it that way.
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What they receive
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Harun
Masculine · #2718 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Haruns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Harun are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Harun in 2025?
- Harun ranks #2718 among US boy names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Harun?
- About 1 in every 36,342 US boys born in 2025 was named Harun — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Harun with classmates?
- Harun will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Harun
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Einar#2718 · Kurtis#2718 · Sasha#2718 · Jovany#2718 · Ahsan#2718 · Xavien#2718 · Yassin#2718 · Unknown#2718
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Harun? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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