Harald

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Harold in PL Poland, CZ Czechia, SK Slovakia and 3 more, Харальд in RU Russia, TR Türkiye and Haral'D in LV Latvia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Harald is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name72K records spelled Harald68 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Norwegian Bokmål

  Also written Harold, Harrold, Haerold, Herold, Härold

• French given name15K records spelled Harald9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Brazil, Spain, United States

  Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Haral'D

• Polish given name5.2K records spelled Harald17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, Croatia, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Croatian

  Also written Haral'D, Харалд

• Hungarian given name458 records spelled Harald2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland

  Also written Haral'D

• Thai given name443 records spelled Harald16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Thailand, United States, India, Norway

  Languages: Thai, Lao

  Also written Halee, Hali, Harlie, ฮาร์ล, Harlee

49 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Harald is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Norwegian Nynorsk, a male given name from Old Norse, feminine equivalent Haralda or Haralde

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In German, a male given name from the North Germanic languages

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In German, männl. Vom., dänische, norwegische, schwedische Entsprechung von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In English, A different form of Harrod (i–ii).

  as a name·Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

• In non, accusative of Haraldr

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 81 years between 1945–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Harald Fairhairb. 851NOKing of Norway
• Harald Bluetoothb. 911DKKing of Denmark and Norway
• Harald Greycloakb. 935NOKing of Norway
• Harald III of Norwayb. 1015NOKing of Norway from 1046 to 1066
• Harold Harefootb. 1016GBnot in their usual nameKing of England from 1035 to 1040
• Harold IIb. 1022GBnot in their usual nameAnglo-Saxon King of England in 1066
• James Robertson Justiceb. 1907GBnot in their usual nameBritish actor (1907–1975)
• Harald Vb. 1937NOKing of Norway (born 1937)
• Harald Schumacherb. 1954DEGerman association football player
• Harald Zwartb. 1965NONorwegian director

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 546 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Harald?

We estimate roughly 230 thousand people bear Harald (counting its spellings and scripts) across 16 countries in our records.

In which country does Harald have the most bearers?

Harald is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled harald.

Where is Harald most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Harald is densest in Norway — about 1 in 448 people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.

How common is Harald compared with other names?

In Germany, Harald is the 94th most common given name of 154,506 given names recorded there.

Is Harald a male or female name?

Harald is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Harald mean?

Recorded meaning: Germanic: from earlier Harwald ‘army power’.