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

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

Harms is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • 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)

≈17,000 people, est.

Sources
388 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 4.7K (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

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.

Where Harms is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#316≈17,000 est.≈1 in 4.7KlistedHarms173
US United States—14,3771 in 23K14KHarms388
NL Netherlands#7492,4531 in 7K2.5KHarms56
ID Indonesia—≈2,400 est.≈1 in 112K—Harms4
CA Canada—≈1,900 est.≈1 in 20K—Harms111
AU Australia—≈780 est.≈1 in 33K—Harms91

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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Harms is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Härms

  • French surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Netherlands, Canada

    Also written Härms

  • Polish surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, United States, Czechia, Netherlands

    Languages: Polish, Czech

    Also written Härms

49 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)

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)

1850190019502000Hermann August Theodor Harms, b. 1870Bernhard Harms, b. 1876Joachim Harms, b. 1932Berend Harms, b. 1939Rainer Ute Harms, b. 1940Jesse Harms, b. 1952Rebecca Harms, b. 1956Lars Harms, b. 1964Sandra Harms, b. 1980

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 Harms,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 33 sources across 20 countries.

Official registers attesting Harms
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201014K#2,518
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200013K#2,459
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202013K#2,680
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)20072.5K#467
DE GermanyDeutscher Familiennamenatlas Band 1———
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 5

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.
How do you pronounce Harms?
A machine transcription gives /hɑɹmz/ (IPA) for English.
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?

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

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, “Harms” — the 316th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Harms parses inside a full name →