Harper

surname · Latin script

Meaning: from OE hearpere ‘harper’; first attested Robert le Harpur 1186 P (Ha)

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/hɑɹpɚ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Harper is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • IEIreland≈1 in 1.8K(inferred from the name graph)
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 2.1K
  • NZNew Zealand≈1 in 2.6K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

124,461 people, 2010

#745 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

Sources
536 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 1.8K (inferred from the name graph)

Ireland, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from OE hearpere ‘harper’; first attested Robert le Harpur 1186 P (Ha)

Sources 1

  • A Dictionary of English Surnames

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Harper 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.

Where Harper is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States#214124,4611 in 2.7K124KHarper536
GB United Kingdom#185≈31,000 est.≈1 in 2.1K1.5KHarper289
EG Egypt—≈15,000 est.≈1 in 7.2K—Harper26
CA Canada#232≈13,000 est.≈1 in 3K115Harper212
IT Italy#428≈11,000 est.≈1 in 5.6K—Harper33
IE Ireland#158≈2,800 est.≈1 in 1.8K87Harper76
NZ New Zealand#232≈1,900 est.≈1 in 2.6K115Harper124
IS Iceland#433≈130 est.≈1 in 2.6K1Harper9
VC St. Vincent & Grenadines—401 in 2.5K40—3

124,461 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. 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 — Surname Frequency 2010; ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry); Electoral Office of St Vincent & the Grenadines — Final Voters List (Nov 2025). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Harper is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

    Also written Härpër

  • German surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, United Kingdom

    Also written Hàrper, Haerper, Härper

  • French surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Härpër

  • Greek surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Χαρπερ

68 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Harper 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 English, Finn, harju ridge, one of the numerous names adopted from the vocab. of the natural landscape in the 19th cent. on the harp, from an agent deriv. of ME harp harp (OE hearp). The harper was one of the most important figures of a medieval baronial hall, especially in Scotland and N England, and the office of harper was sometimes heredi¬ tary. See also Crowther.

    as a nameA dictionary of surnames

  • In English, on the harp, from an agent deriv. of ME harp harp (OE Patrs. 279 Harrop

    as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

  • In English, A harpist, especially one who plays a traditional harp without pedals.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In English, ‘Harp-player’.

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

  • In English, English: 'one who plays the harp'.

    as a nameAfrican 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)

19201940196019802000Valerie Harper, b. 1939Jessica Harper, b. 1949Tess Harper, b. 1950Stephen Harper, b. 1959Frank Harper, b. 1962Ron Harper, b. 1964Ben Harper, b. 1969William Jackson Harper, b. 1980Hannah Harper, b. 1982Dillion Harper, b. 1991

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)

FormalDear Ms Harper,
InformalHi Harper,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 91 sources across 45 countries.

Official registers attesting Harper
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010124K#245
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000120K#226
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020119K#255
VC St. Vincent & GrenadinesElectoral Office of St Vincent & the Grenadines — Final Voters List (Nov 2025)202540#222

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

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

In which country does Harper have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 124 thousand people named Harper, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled harper.
What does the name Harper mean, and where does it come from?
from OE hearpere ‘harper’; first attested Robert le Harpur 1186 P (Ha) Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
How common is the name Harper?
In the United States, the national register counted 124,461 people named Harper in 2010, about 1 in 2.7 thousand residents.
How common is Harper compared with other names?
In the United States, Harper is the 214th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.
How do you pronounce Harper?
A machine transcription gives /hɑɹpɚ/ (IPA) for English.

What do you want to know about Harper?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/harper

The 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, “Harper” — the 214th most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Harper parses inside a full name →