9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Willa vs Harper

How Willa 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

Willa

Female · Anglo

Meaning: "Desired."

Harper

Male · English

Meaning: Harpist

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Willa (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 Willa Harper
Peak year (most US births) 2019 — 889 girls 2016 — 10,802 girls
Peak rank #356 #11
Most recent rank (2025) #422 (742 births) #16 (6,792 births)
Total US births since 1880 10,408 137,640
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 7,846 89,927

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Harper reached 10,802 US births in 2016 — 9,913 more than Willa's peak count.

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.

Willa — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Vermont #94 17
2 Maine #134 37
3 North Dakota #144 50
4 Nebraska #147 151
5 District of Columbia #171 32

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 →