Harper

Another new addition to my girls list is the lovely surname Harper (the only surname on my girls list surprisingly while about half of my boys list are surnames). It’s also a name thats rising in the United States and in Australia.

Harper is a surname related to a person who played the harp or made harps but is one of those surnames that is far more common as a first name (it isn’t in the top 100 surnames in Australia) and one that has been rising super quickly in the united states only entering the top 1000 in 2004 and the top 100 in 2011 it now sits at number 10. In Australia its currently at number 19, 15 in WA and 21 in NSW where it has been in the top 100 since 2011 as well. In the UK it entered the top 1000 in 2010 and now sits at number 89and was first used for more then 4 girls in 2001. I know in Australia it was used before this time since I found two teenaged Harper’s I had mutual friends with on social media. Harper’s also in the top 100 in Canada (43 in BC), New Zealand (3, it entered their top 50 in 2012) and Scotland (36). It also charts for boys in the UK and the US,  in the UK  it sits at 670 for boys and actually hit the top 1,000 in the same year and is still rising, in the US at 722 (it re-entered for boys in 2006) it hit it’s second highest point in 2012 at 606 and I would argue it’s still quite steady for boys (or at least hasn’t fell a dramatic amount and before it re-entered it hadn’t been in the top 1,000 in 100 years) but so did Madison for a while so it could only be a matter of time before Harper does the same. Though Harper in terms of chart ratings is quite similar to Madison’s. Madison took 8 years to hit the top 100 while Harper took 7 but both took four years to hit the top 10 where Madison remained for 17 years so I think it would be safe to say Harper won’t fall quickly.

Though generally I prefer names to stay on their traditional gender and I’m not a big fan of Madison either yet I have really started to like the name I would say is “the new Madison”. By the time of have kids though my opinion on Harper could have changed after all I don’t like Madison mainly because I know at least twenty plus at least five Madeline’s /Madeleine’s/Madelyn’s. If Harper stays in the top 10 for 17 years like Madison, I’m sure I’ll be sick of it by then but I to base my list on what I may be sick of by the time I’m 34 doesn’t seem right to me.