Harm

Boys' name

Short form of Harmen

Harm has been given to 320 babies in the U.S. since 1895. 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 1917, with 18 recorded.

Babies named Harm, 1940

1 in 461,000

Harm 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Harm: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Harmen

Low German

What Harm means

Harm is a short form of Harmen.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Harm is used in Dutch.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈɦɑrm/ for Harm.

Origin, language, and formation

Harm is used in Dutch. Its origins include Low German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Harmen and Herman.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Dutch, Harm is pronounced /ɦɑrm/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 320 boys were recorded with the name Harm between 1895 and 1940. Its highest annual count was 18 in 1917; its best national rank was #839 in 1904.

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 Harm?

Harm had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1940, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1940: 1 in 461,000; 5 of 2,302,666 births
Among boys only: 1 in 232,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1940: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 319,218 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Harm 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 1940 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 319,218 children born in 1940 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Harm. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Harms were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Harm was born before 1922 — so the typical Harm is around 103 today.

Median birth year: 1922; About 103 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 35.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 76.9%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 35.6% of all recorded uses (114).

Is Harm 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 1917 (18)
Years since peak: 108; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 23.8% average annual change
Best rank ever: #839; 1904

Spellings of Harm

Harm is not the most common spelling — Mark is, with 33.0% against Harm's <0.01%.

Mark33.0%1,362,176
Gary21.9%902,152
Carl12.2%504,827
Harry10.3%423,866
Earl7.0%289,174
Marc3.4%140,604
Sam3.1%127,234
Karl2.4%100,836

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 Harm is used

Across 1910–2025, Harm was most concentrated in Iowa — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 177,348 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Iowa1 in 100,000

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. Harm has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Harm around the world

Where Harm ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

South Australia
1959–1961
#561
in 1961

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Harm 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: #839; 1904
Peak year: 1917; 18 that year
First recorded: 1895
Last recorded: 1940
All-time count: 320
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Harm

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

Haru Harlo Hari Haron Harel Hart Haruki Haruto Haroun Harvin Harjot Harbor Harlyn Harl Harun Haruo Harvest Harden Harald Harith Haris Harve Harlym Harman

Sibling names for Harm

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

Albina Nelle Orpha Antonette Winnifred Maurine Johnie Dovie

For a brother

Regis Meyer Rosario Lyman Winfield Dorsey Granville Abe

Explore around Harm

Top names of 1917, Harm's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1904 Boys' names starting with H Dutch Boy Names