Harvey
Feminine · “battle-worthy”
Harvey is given to boys far more often — 127,925 boys against 867 girls since 1880. See Harvey as a boy name
Harvey is Breton before it is English. Haerviu joined the Breton words for battle and worthy, came to England with the Normans and with Breton settlers, and became one of the more durable English surnames. Its appearance on American girls in the 1920s belongs to the era when family surnames were given to daughters as freely as to sons.
How old is the name Harvey?
Harvey first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Harvey alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 400 people named Harvey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Harvey most popular?
Harvey peaked in 1926, reaching #1483 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 4,633 places below that high. See the whole 1926 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Haerviu to Harvey
The story of Harvey
Brittany supplied a substantial contingent to the Norman invasion of 1066, and Breton names entered English through them: Alan, Brian and Harvey are all Breton rather than Norman French. Harvey became an English surname and stayed one for six centuries. Its promotion to a given name is nineteenth-century, and the American record for girls between about 1900 and 1930 reflects the practice of giving a daughter a family surname unchanged. The name has recently revived on boys in Britain, where it entered the top twenty in the 2000s, without any corresponding revival on girls.
Meaning
battle-worthy
Breton haer, 'battle, carnage', and viu, 'worthy, fit' — so a name meaning something like worthy in battle. Saint Hervé, a sixth-century Breton musician and abbot said to have been blind from birth, is the figure who kept the name in use in Brittany. The Norman conquest brought Bretons to England in numbers, and their names with them; Harvey and Hervey are the English results. The derivation is settled.
How the name formed
- Haerviu
- Herve
- Harvey
Related forms: Herve · Herveig · Hervey
Pronouncing Harvey
HAR-vee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The French Herve is said air-VAY, with the stress at the end and a nasal first vowel — a different name to the ear, though the same one on paper.
Nicknames for Harvey
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
- 1897
- Most girls named
- 192630 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1483reached in 1926
- Change vs 2024
- −26.9%19 in 2025, from 26
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.
Harvey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Herve in French — related form
- Herveig in Breton — related form
- Hervey in English — spelling variant
Harveys among us
people named Harvey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Harvey
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 Gilbert test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Harvey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gilbert climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gilbert's path sketches the road Harvey is walking now.
Harvey 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
Harvey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Harvey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and expressible in two words.
- The Breton history behind it is genuine and less well known than it deserves.
- The pronunciation is obvious to any English reader.
- In current use it is overwhelmingly a boys' name and will be read that way.
- Its American curve on girls is 1920s, which places a bearer's generation.
- A 1950 play and film about an invisible rabbit is a persistent association.
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What they receive
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Harvey
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Harveys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Harvey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Harvey in 2025?
- Harvey ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Harvey?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Harvey — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Harvey with classmates?
- Harvey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Harvey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Jai#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Harvey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Harvey and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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