Kari vs Harper

How Kari and Harper compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Kari (girls) vs Harper (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric	Kari	Harper
Peak year (most US births)	2000 — 293 girls	2016 — 10,802 girls
Peak rank	#783	#11
Most recent rank (2002)	#976 (227 births)	#16 (6,792 births)
Total US births since 1880	773	137,640
Last 10 years (1993–2002)	773	89,927

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Harper reached 10,802 US births in 2016 — 10,509 more than Kari's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year	New leader	Kari births	Harper births
2004	Harper	0	274

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Kari — top 5 states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Maryland	#785	28
2	Alabama	#807	17
3	Ohio	#835	106
4	Indiana	#869	37
5	Pennsylvania	#910	40

Harper — top 5 states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	West Virginia	#3	725
2	Montana	#4	392
3	South Dakota	#4	409
4	Wyoming	#4	190
5	Maine	#5	478

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →