Harms
surname · Latin script
Meaning: patronymic from Hermann (< hari 'Heer' + man 'Mann'); variant with Herms, illustrating e/a variation before r
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Harms is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 4.7K(inferred from the name graph)
- NLNetherlands1 in 7K
- CACanada≈1 in 20K
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.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 388 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 4.7K (inferred from the name graph)
≈17,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
patronymic from Hermann (< hari 'Heer' + man 'Mann'); variant with Herms, illustrating e/a variation before r.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Harms 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #316 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.7K | listed | Harms | 173 |
| US United States | — | 14,377 | 1 in 23K | 14K | Harms | 388 |
| NL Netherlands | #749 | 2,453 | 1 in 7K | 2.5K | Harms | 56 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 112K | — | Harms | 4 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Harms | 111 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈780 est. | ≈1 in 33K | — | Harms | 91 |
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; the dfa-band-1 register; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007). 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)
Harms 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 German, Low German surname from the pet form Harm < Hermann; plate shows the vowel variant a in place of e. Bearer count: 8153.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
patronymic from a short form of the personal name Herman(n) (see Hermann).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In German, zu ahd./as. heri 'Heer'; Rufname Harm/Hermann
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, Nominativische Entsprechung zu genitivischem Hermes/Harms; die Karte zeigt die Reduktion des Endvokals und die Verteilung der Formen.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Wohl zu einem Namen auf Hermann/Harms; die Karte zeigt Monophthongvarianz a/ä/e im Haupttonvokalismus. Bearer count: 8698.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
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)
- Hermann August Theodor Harmsb. 1870DEGerman botanist (1870–1942)
- Bernhard Harmsb. 1876DEGerman economist (1876–1939)
- Joachim Harmsb. 1932DEGerman politician
- Berend Harmsb. 1939DEGerman politician
- Rainer Ute Harmsb. 1940DEGerman politician
- Jesse Harmsb. 1952USAmerican musician
- Rebecca Harmsb. 1956DEGerman politician
- Lars Harmsb. 1964DEGerman politician
- Sandra Harmsb. 1980SESwedish film producer
- Jeff HarmsUSAmerican musician and actor
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 33 sources across 20 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 14K | #2,518 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 13K | #2,459 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 13K | #2,680 |
| NL Netherlands | CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007) | 2007 | 2.5K | #467 |
| DE Germany | Deutscher Familiennamenatlas Band 1 | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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 Harms mean, and where does it come from?
- patronymic from Hermann (< hari 'Heer' + man 'Mann'); variant with Herms, illustrating e/a variation before r. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus.
- In which country does Harms have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 17 thousand people named Harms in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled harms.
- How common is the name Harms?
- In the United States, the national register counted 14,377 people named Harms in 2010, about 1 in 23 thousand residents.
- How common is Harms compared with other names?
- In Germany, Harms is the 316th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Harms?
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/harmsThe 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, “Harms” — the 316th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.