- Origin: English
- Meaning: “harp player; harp maker.
- Gender: Unisex
- First Est. 1698
From the transferred use of the occupational surname, ultimately from the Anglo-Saxon, harpeare (harper), it originally referred to someone who made harps, and occasionally, it could also refer to a person who played harps.
Its earliest use as a male given-name I could find was for a Harper (or Harperus) Hobbins (1699-1701) of Warwickshire, England.
For females, it starts to appear mainly as a middle name, starting in the early 1800s in England. There is a marriage record from 1863 I could find for a woman named Harper Richards in Cornwall, England. Other than that, it remained very rare as a female first name until the 2000s.
A well-known early female bearer of this name was American author, Harper Lee (1926-2016 (though this was her middle name). In her case, she was named in honour of the family pediatrician who saved her younger sister, Louise.
However, its sudden rise in popularity for females in the Anglophone world was influenced by a combination of different factors likely not related to the author. Mainly:
- It was the name of Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012).
- Victoria and David Beckham chose this for their daughter, Harper Seven Beckham (b. 2011)
- Its similarity to other trendy unisex surname-turned-first names, such as Taylor, Piper and Avery.
Harper entered the U.S. Top 1000 in 2004, then skyrocketed. Since 2011, it has consistently ranked in the Top 20 for girls, making it one of the most successful modern surname-names. As of 2024, it is the 12th most popular female name in the United States. For males, it has not appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 since 2018.
Harper as a feminine given-name is now in circulation in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.
Its ranking in other countries are as follows:
- #7 (Australia, 2024)
- #8 (New Zealand, 2024)
- #21 (Scotland, 2024)
- #23 (England & Wales, 2024)
- #31 (Canada, 2023)
- #51 (Northern Ireland, 2023)
- #63 (Ireland, 2024)
- #479 (the Netherlands, 2024)
It’s a crisp name with musical appeal, not too frilly, but also oddly feminine. However, it is at risk at dating itself to the mid to late 2000s. If you want something that is decidedly more feminine, and absolutely rare, you can try the Icelandic female name, Harpa, and Latvians have lettonized this to Harpera.
For fun, this is Harper’s translations in other languages. These are not used as actual names but are interesting hypothetical variations and perhaps inspiration as more unusual alternatives:
Female
- Azifa (Arabic)
- Kinara (Assyrian) – Legitimate name
- Telennorez (Breton)
- Qín 琴 (Chinese, pron: CHEEN) – Legitimate name
- Xianzi 弦子 (Chinese, SHEN-zih) – Legitimate name
- Telynyores (Cornish)
- Harppuri (Finnish)
- Kineret (Hebrew) – Legitimate name
- Cláirseoir (Irish-Gaelic, KLAHR-shur)
- Arpista (Italian, Spanish)
- Koto 琴 (Japanese)
- Arfininkė (Lithuanian)
- Hafiarka (Polish)
- Telynores (Welsh)
Male
- Azif (Arabic)
- Telennor (Breton)
- Qín 琴 (Chinese, see above) – Legitimate name
- Telynnyer (Cornish)
- Cláirseoir (Irish-Gaelic, see above for pronunciation)
- Harpeur (French)
- Hafiarz (Polish)
- Telynor (Welsh)
- Kinubi (Swahili) – Legitimate name
Sources