Harriet (name)

Look up Harriet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Harriet is a female name. The name is an English version of the French Henriette, a female form of Henri. The male name Harry was formed in a similar way from Henry. All these names are derived from Henrik, which is ultimately derived from the Germanic name Heimiric, derived from the word elements heim, or "home" and ric, meaning "power, ruler". The male name Henry was first used in England by Normans.^[1] Popular nicknames for Harriet include Hattie, Hettie, Hennie, Harri/Harrie, and Etta/Ettie. The name can be lengthened to Harrietta or Henriette/Henrietta.

The name was the 73rd most popular name for baby girls born in England and Wales in 2007. It last ranked in the top 1,000 most popular names for girls in the United States in the 1960s.^[2]

Variants

As a given name

• Harriet Andersson, Swedish actress
• Harriet Arbuthnot (1793–1834), English diarist, social observer, and political hostess
• Harriet Backer, Norwegian painter
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and writer
• Harriet Bland, Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter
• Harriet Bosse, actress
• Harriet Boyd-Hawes, American archaeologist
• Harriet Brooks, nuclear physicist
• Harriet Chalmers Adams, American writer, explorer and photographer
• Harriet Ludlow Clarke, British artist
• Harriet Elphinstone-Dick, early English-Australian swimming champion
• Harriet Harman, UK politician and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
• Harriet Hemings, one of four mixed-race children born to Sally Hemings; their father is widely believed to have been the president Thomas Jefferson
• Harriet Howard, mistress of Napoleon III
• Harriet Lindeman, politician
• Harriet Ann Jacobs, American abolitionist and writer
• Harriet B. Jones (1856 - 1943), the first woman to be licensed as a physician in West Virginia
• Harriet Keopuolani, Hawaiian queen
• Harriet Lane, niece of bachelor President James Buchanan and First Lady of the United States
• Harriet Lerner, feminist and clinical psychologist
• Harriet Low (1809-1877), American diarist
• Harriet Martineau, English writer, feminist philosopher, and political economist
• Harriet Metcalf, Olympic gold medal-winning rower
• Harriet Miers, lawyer and politician
• Harriet Nahanee, Canadian Aboriginal rights activist
• Harriet Nahienaena, Hawaiian princess
• Harriet Nelson, American singer and actress best known for The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
• Harriet Owen, actress
• Harriet Quimby, first American female pilot and first woman to fly across the English channel
• Harriet Roberts, British dance pop singer
• Harriet Richardson, American carcinologist
• Harriet Anne Scott, English novelist
• Harriet Shaw Weaver, journalist and patron of James Joyce
• Harriet Smithson, Irish actress and first wife of Berlioz
• Harriet Sohmers Zwerling, Beat writer
• Harriet Taylor Mill (1807 – 1858), philosopher and women's rights advocate.
• Harriet Taylor Upton, suffragette and author
• Harriet Tubman, abolitionist
• Harriet Wheeler, rock singer
• Harriet E. Wilson, first female African-American novelist

Fictional

• Mad Harriet, DC Comics supervillain
• Harriet Arkham, daughter of the founder of Arkham Asylum in Batman comic books
• Harriet Hyde, Julia Jekyll's alter-ego in Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde
• Harriet Jones, British Prime Minister in Doctor Who
• Harriet Morton, protagonist of Eva Ibbotson's novel A Company of Swans
• Harriet Schulenburg, character in the British sitcom Green Wing
• Harriet Sims, U.S. Navy officer in the TV show JAG
• Harriet Smith, character from Jane Austen's novel Emma
• Harriet Vane, fictional mystery author in Dorothy L. Sayers' "Lord Peter" stories
• Harriet Vanger, character from the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Harriet Watson, John Watson's sister in the TV series Sherlock
• Harriet M. Welsch, title character of Harriet the Spy

Animals

• Harriet (tortoise), a Galápagos tortoise which had an estimated age of 175 years at the time of her death

As a surname

• Fulchran-Jean Harriet

Notes