Harold
- Pronunciation
- [Ha-rold]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Strong Fighter
- Origin
- Dutch
About the Name Harold
Harold is a name of Old Norse and Old English heritage, formed from the elements here ("army") and weald or wald ("rule, power"), yielding the meaning "strong fighter" or "army ruler." The name was carried to England before the Norman Conquest and is most famously associated with the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, lending it deep roots in the English-speaking historical record. Its Dutch-influenced forms spread the name through northern Europe during the medieval period.
Harold is a name with one of the longer unbroken chart histories in the American record. It appears in the US Social Security top-1000 from 1884 and climbed to a national peak of #12 in 1915. After that apex it began a long, slow descent that has nonetheless kept it continuously present in the top-1000 for over a century. Most recently Harold ranked #988 in 2024, confirming that, while it no longer commands the frequency of its early-twentieth-century heyday, it has never fully left American usage.
The name's enduring appeal lies in its combination of robust historical weight and unassuming familiarity. It sits in the same generational tier as similar vintage classics undergoing quiet revival among parents who favour substantive names with genuine history. Recorded variants include the brisk nickname Hal and the more versatile Harry, which has enjoyed its own independent popularity in recent years.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Harold
US Popularity History (1884–2025)
Annual US births named Harold by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1924 with 14,149 boys named Harold (boy rank #13 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #993 for boys (230 US births). That's 980 places below its 1924 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Harold Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Harold the strongest states are Massachusetts, Kentucky, Minnesota.
Strongest boys-name states
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #1,061 | 89 |
| 2 | Texas | #917 | 121 |
| 3 | Arizona | #900 | 17 |
| 4 | Florida | #881 | 109 |
| 5 | Illinois | #870 | 58 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #860 | 64 |
| 7 | Ohio | #838 | 69 |
| 8 | Georgia | #827 | 63 |
| 9 | New York | #821 | 120 |
| 10 | New Jersey | #805 | 53 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Harold in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Harold?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Harold to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Harold against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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