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Harper

English
"harp player"
Grace Royal
By Grace Royal
Updated Wed Apr 09 2025

Harper Origin and Meaning

The name Harper is a girl's name of English origin meaning "harp player".

You might think of Harper as the hottest name of the last decade, jumping from obscurity to the Top 10, where it remained until last year.

Victoria and David Beckham's choice of Harper for their youngest child and only daughter in 2011 did much to catapult the name to stardom. Some reports say Harper was named after a character on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place, her brother's favorite show, while other say she was named after Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird
, her mom's favorite book.

Those two influences definitely helped propel Harper up the popularity list in general. Plus Harper is a member of the trendy group of occupational surnames turned first names for both genders, including Taylor, Parker, Mason, and Skylar.

Harper has been a shooting star in the celebrisphere, chosen first by Ali Wentworth and George Stephanopoulis, followed by Lisa Marie Presley, David Spade, Dave Grohl, Martie Maguire, Tiffani Thiessen, Bill Hader and Neil Patrick Harris. Singer Paul Simon used it for his son more than 50 years ago.

While Harper was used near-exclusively for boys in the 1800s and remains technically unisex, in reality it's used today overwhelmingly for girls. More than 8000 baby girls were named Harper in the US last year, versus only 138 baby boys.

# 11 in the US

Harper Rank in US Top 1000

# 165 on Nameberry

Harper Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Popularity of the name Harper

20 Names Similar to Harper

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Famous People Named Harper

  • (Nelle) Harper Lee
    American novelist
  • Harper Renee Henry (b. 2001)
    daughter of Miss America Heather French Henry and Steve Henry
  • Harper Rhimes (adopted 2002)
    daughter of screenwriter, producer/director Shonda Rhimes
  • Harper Kelsay (b. 2006)
    daughter of NFL player Chris Kelsay
  • Harper Spade (b. 2008)
    daughter of actor David Spade and model Jillian Grace
  • Harper Moon Margaret Vedder (2008)
    daughter of musician Eddie Vedder
  • Harper Rosie Maguire (b. 2008)
    daughter of musician Martie Maguire
  • Harper Tillman (b. 2008)
    daughter of NFL player Travares Tillman
  • Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood (b. 2008)
    daughter of singer Lisa Marie Presley; granddaughter of Elvis Presley; twin of brother Finley Aaron
  • Harper Willow Grohl (b. 2009)
    daughter of American rock musician Dave Grohl
  • Harper Grace Burtka
    Harris (b. 2010) daughter of actor Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka
  • Harper Renn Smith (b. 2010)
    daughter of actors Tiffani Thiessen and Brady Smith
  • Harper Reese Hedrick (b. 2010)
    daughter of speed skater Chad Hedrick
  • Harper Rain Sinclair McGlinchey (b. 2010)
    daughter of musicians Natalie Bassingthwaite and Cameron McGlinchey
  • Harper Adams (b. 2010)
    daughter of singer Kristin (Holt) Adams
  • Harper Hader (b. 2012)
    daughter of actor Bill Hader and director Maggie Carey
  • Harper Estelle Wolfeld
    Gosk (b. 2013), daughter of TV journalists Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gosk
  • Harper Marie Kirk (b. 2014)
    daughter of actress Jenna Fischer
  • Harper Rose Barash (b. 2014)
    daughter of actors Brandon Barash and Kirsten Storms
  • Harper Foxx Cotchin (b. 2014)
    daughter of AFL footballer Trent Cotchin
  • Harper Grace Hammer (b. 2014)
    daughter of actor Armie Hammer
  • Harper Clark (b. 2014)
    daughter of model Kristy Hinze and James Clark
  • Harper Marie Anderson (b. 2015)
    daughter of baseball player Brian Anderson
  • Harper Raines (b. 2016)
    daughter of TV personalities Madison Channing Walls and Tony Raines of "The Real World"
  • Harper Rose Garner (b. 2016)
    daughter of TV personalities Zoe Hendrix and Alex Garner of "Married at First Sight"
  • Harper May Stefanovic (b. 2020)
    daughter of Australian television presenter Karl Stefanovic

The name Harper in Pop Culture

  • Harper Pitt
    character in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America"
  • Harper Finkle
    character on TV's "Wizards of Waverly Place"
  • Harper Weil
    character on TV's "The Whispers"
  • Harper Whitley
    character on New Zealand soap "Shortland Street"
  • Harper Connelly
    main character in a series by Charlaine Harris
  • Harper Price
    main character in "Rebel Belle" by Rachel Hawkins
  • Harper Dean
    character in webcomic "Real Life" by Greg Dean
  • Harper Burke
    character in film "Things We Lost in the Fire"
  • Harper McIntyre
    character in The CW's "The 100"
  • Harper
    the estranged cousin living in the basement in the game "Ghost of Thornton Hall"
  • Harper
    one of the main characters of TNT's "Leverage"
  • Harper
    character in "Minecraft: Story Mode"

The name Harper in Nameberry Blog Posts