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Serena vs Harper

How Serena 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

Serena

Female · Spanish

Meaning: Serene

Harper

Male · English

Meaning: Harpist

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Serena (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 Serena Harper
Peak year (most US births) 2000 — 1,504 girls 2016 — 10,802 girls
Peak rank #209 #11
Most recent rank (2025) #325 (942 births) #16 (6,792 births)
Total US births since 1880 23,012 137,640
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 8,063 89,927

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Harper reached 10,802 US births in 2016 — 9,298 more than Serena'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 Serena births Harper births
2008 Harper 882 1,128

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.

Serena — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Rhode Island #207 16
2 Hawaii #223 17
3 District of Columbia #237 22
4 New Mexico #239 25
5 New Jersey #270 299

Harper — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
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 →