Harold

Where Harold comes from

From a merger of Old English Hereweald and Old English Harold (itself from Old Norse Haraldr), both from Proto-Germanic *Harjawaldaz, from *harjaz (“army”) + *waldaz (“ruler, authority”). Related to Walter, which has the elements reversed. Cognate with Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish Harald, Faroese and Icelandic Haraldur.
— Wiktionary's entry for Harold
  • Old English
  • Old Norse
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #116 among boys — 113 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1894
    Harold Macmillan born
    Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963
  3. 1921
    Peak, #12
    13,811 babies named Harold — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1930
    Harold Pinter born
    British playwright
  5. 1953
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #56.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Old English or Old Norse.
Namesakes
  • Harold Pinter · British playwright, 1930–2008
  • Harold Macmillan · Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963, 1894–1986
  • Harold Wilson · Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964-1970 and 1974-1976, 1916–1995
  • Harold Urey · American physical chemist, 1893–1981
  • Harold Lloyd · American actor and comedian, 1893–1971

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.