# Harding (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/harding/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “hard” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhɑɹdɪŋ/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Hardinge |
| US babies named this | 1,123 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 1,123 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | not in the ONS data |

## Etymology

Originally a patronymic from Hardy or from compound given names with the Germanic element *hard (“hard”).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | 10 | 2,681 |
| 1967 | 6 | 3,709 |
| 1969 | 6 | 4,128 |
| 1971 | 6 | 4,610 |
| 1982 | 6 | 5,916 |
| 2006 | 6 | 11,138 |
| 2012 | 6 | 11,291 |
| 2014 | 5 | 12,744 |
| 2015 | 6 | 11,184 |
| 2016 | 6 | 11,213 |
| 2017 | 5 | 12,963 |
| 2020 | 7 | 9,929 |
| 2021 | 7 | 10,104 |
| 2024 | 10 | 7,959 |
| 2025 | 5 | 12,697 |

## People named Harding

- Ellery Harding Clark, American track and field athlete (1874–1949)
- Richard Harding Davis, American journalist and fiction writer (1864–1916)
- Charles Harding Firth, British military and political historian (1857–1936)
- Alonzo Mourning, American basketball player (born 1970)
- Harold Kelley, American psychologist & academic (1921–2003)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.