Harold
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Germanic name meaning ‘army power’; introduced to Ireland by the Norsemen as Harald
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/hɛɹəɫd/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Harold is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 84th most common given name.
- CNChina≈1 in 769(inferred from the name graph)
- SGSingapore≈1 in 820
- CACanada≈1 in 926
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Harold itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #390 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 578 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 769 (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,800,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Germanic name meaning ‘army power’; introduced to Ireland by the Norsemen as Harald.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Harold, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Harold counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈1,800,000 est. | ≈1 in 769 | — | Harold | 44 |
| US United States | #159 | 186,450 | 1 in 1.8K | 186K | Harold | 578 |
| GB United Kingdom | #226 | ≈59,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | — | Harold | 236 |
| PH Philippines | #467 | ≈48,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | — | Harold | 132 |
| IT Italy | #290 | ≈42,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | 3 | Harold | 57 |
| CA Canada | #164 | ≈41,000 est. | ≈1 in 926 | 1 | Harold | 223 |
| SE Sweden | — | 13,752as Harald | 1 in 742 | 14K | Harold | 38 |
| NO Norway | — | 12,204as Harald | 1 in 448 | 41K | Harold | 30 |
| SG Singapore | #84 | ≈7,600 est. | ≈1 in 820 | — | Harold | 73 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Harold is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Old English/Old Norse name from here “army” + weald “rule, power”.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, from the personal name Haraldus etc.; first attested Haraldus, Harold, Herald, Herold, Horoldus, Haral, Heral 1066 DB
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
From an Old English personal name derived from here ‘army’ + weald ‘ruler’, reinforced before the Norman Conquest by the related Scandinavian form Haraldr, introduced by Norse settlers. The name was not common in the later Middle Ages, probably because it was associated with the unfortunate King Harold, killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It was used in some parts of
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, occupational name for a herald. Middle English herau(l)d (Old French herau(l)t, from a Germanic compound of the same elements as above, used as a common noun).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, 4. Irish: this name is of direct Norse origin (see 1), but is also occasionally a variant of Harrell and Hurrell.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Harold Harefootb. 1016GBKing of England from 1035 to 1040
- Harold Lloydb. 1893USAmerican actor and comedian (1893–1971)
- Harold Clayton Ureyb. 1893USAmerican physical chemist (1893-1981)
- Harold Macmillanb. 1894GBPrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963
- Harold Holtb. 1908AUAustralian politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (1908-1967)
- Abraham Maslowb. 1909USnot in their usual nameAmerican psychologist (1908–1970)
- Kim Philbyb. 1912GBnot in their usual nameKGB mole for the Soviet Union (1912–1988)
- Harold Wilsonb. 1916GBPrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964-1970 and 1974-1976 (1916–1995)
- Derek Harold Richard Bartonb. 1918GBEnglish organic chemist (1918–1998)
- George Harrisonb. 1943GBnot in their usual nameEnglish musician and member of the Beatles (1943–2001)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 108 sources across 57 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 186K | #298 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 292 | #3,635 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 247 | #298 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 230 | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 226 | #4,788 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 65 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 13 | — |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2021 | 1 | #2,059 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Harold mean, and where does it come from?
- Germanic name meaning ‘army power’; introduced to Ireland by the Norsemen as Harald. Recorded by Irish first names.
- Is Harold a male or female name?
- Harold is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Harold?
- In the etymology graph, Harry, Harald and Eraldo are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Harold have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.8 million people named Harold in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled harold.
- How common is the name Harold?
- In the United States, the national register counted 186,450 people named Harold in 2020, about 1 in 1.8 thousand residents.
- How common is Harold compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Harold is the 84th most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Harold?
- A machine transcription gives /hɛɹəɫd/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Harold?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/haroldThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Harold” — the 84th most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.