Harrison
- Pronunciation
- [Ha-rri-son]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Son Of Harry
- Origin
- English
About the Name Harrison
Harrison is an English patronymic surname meaning literally "son of Harry" — Harry being the medieval English pet form of Henry. The surname appears in English records continuously since the 13th century. The most consequential American Harrisons are the two presidents named Harrison: William Henry Harrison (9th US president, who died 31 days into his term in 1841 — the shortest American presidency) and his grandson Benjamin Harrison (23rd US president, 1889–1893).
Other notable bearers as a surname include British rock musician George Harrison (1943–2001, Beatles guitarist, whose post-Beatles solo career included All Things Must Pass and The Concert for Bangladesh); American actor Harrison Ford (born 1942, whose career through the Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises made the surname-and-first-name combination iconic in American film); American novelist Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall); and English admiral Sir John Harrison (the 18th-century clockmaker whose marine chronometer revolutionized maritime navigation).
Harrison's transition from surname to first name in American naming is largely a 21st-century phenomenon, riding the broader vintage-revival wave. The name climbed from outside the US top 200 in 1995 to the top 100 boys' rank by 2010 and the top 75 by 2020. The name's appeal is its layered American-presidential register combined with three syllables that work across formal and casual registers. The Harrison Ford celebrity association adds an action-cool layer that distinguishes the name from purely vintage choices. Common nicknames Harry (now itself a popular standalone name, associated with Prince Harry), Harri, and the rare Sonny each carry distinct registers. International forms include the related but distinct Henry family across European languages — Heinrich, Henri, Enrique, Enrico, etc.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Harrison
US Popularity History (1888–2025)
Annual US births named Harrison by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2016 with 3,662 boys named Harrison (boy rank #107 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #116 for boys (3,072 US births). That's 9 places below its 2016 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 Harrison 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 Harrison the strongest states are Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota | #40 | 1,116 |
| 2 | Iowa | #58 | 522 |
| 3 | North Dakota | #64 | 164 |
| 4 | Missouri | #66 | 918 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | #71 | 774 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #75 | 852 |
| 7 | South Dakota | #77 | 151 |
| 8 | Maine | #77 | 165 |
| 9 | Rhode Island | #78 | 144 |
| 10 | Indiana | #80 | 914 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | #330 | 45 |
| 2 | Nevada | #231 | 148 |
| 3 | California | #191 | 2,094 |
| 4 | Arizona | #179 | 439 |
| 5 | Florida | #176 | 1,139 |
| 6 | West Virginia | #165 | 128 |
| 7 | Texas | #159 | 2,286 |
| 8 | Hawaii | #157 | 44 |
| 9 | Maryland | #147 | 417 |
| 10 | Mississippi | #146 | 226 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Harrison in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harris | Son Of Harry | Male | English |
Famous People Named Harrison
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Harrison.
- Harrison Ford — Movie Actor (1942)
Looking for names like Harrison?
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 Harrison to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Harrison 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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