Harl

Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Harl has been given to 601 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1920, with 23 recorded.

Babies named Harl, 1973

1 in 503,000

Harl over time, 1880–2025

Boys

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Harl: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Harl means

Harl is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Harl is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 601 boys were recorded with the name Harl between 1880 and 1973. Its highest annual count was 23 in 1920; its best national rank was #972 in 1880.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Harl?

Harl had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1973, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1973: 1 in 503,000; 6 of 3,016,706 births
Among boys only: 1 in 260,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1973: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 348,505 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Harl sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1973 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 348,505 children born in 1973 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Harl. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Harls were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Harl was born before 1933 — so the typical Harl is around 92 today.

Median birth year: 1933; About 92 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 24.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 21.0%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 109; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 24.1% of all recorded uses (145).

Is Harl rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1920 (23)
Years since peak: 105; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 30.3% average annual change
Best rank ever: #972; 1880

Spellings of Harl

Harl is not the most common spelling — Paul is, with 21.9% against Harl's <0.01%.

Paul21.9%1,398,293
Mark21.3%1,362,176
Gary14.1%902,152
Harold8.6%551,632
Carl7.9%504,827
Harry6.6%423,866
Earl4.5%289,174
Marc2.2%140,604

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Harl is used

Across 1910–2025, Harl was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 522,462 across all states with data. It was least common in Missouri (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Arkansas1 in —
2Missouri1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Harl has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Harl by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #972; 1880
Peak year: 1920; 23 that year
First recorded: 1880
Last recorded: 1973
All-time count: 601
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Harl

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Hari Haru Hart Harun Harlo Harden Harald Haron Harel Haris Harlyn Harbor Harm Haroun Haruki Harman Harve Harsh Haruto Harvard Hardin Harvin Harjot Haroon

Sibling names for Harl

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Norine Vina Mozelle Marcelle Oleta Syble Adella Mittie

For a brother

Junius Dock Rupert Orin Otha Casimir Edd Noble

Explore around Harl

Top names of 1920, Harl's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1880 Boys' names starting with H