Humanverse

Jeanne vs Jearl

American parents have registered 163,609 Jeannes since 1880, against 596 Jearls. Jeanne is still ahead, with 30 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jeanne against Jearl, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jeanne Jearl

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jeanne has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1983, when Jeanne had 325 and Jearl had 6.

Side by side

  Jeanne Jearl
Total US births 163,609596
Most in one year 4,37129
Babies in 2025 30under 5
Estimated living today 87,000230
Median age today 6974
Peak year 19471941
Best rank 86th girls1,446th boys
Rank in 2025 4,546thunranked
First recorded 18801919
Girls / boys 163,249 / 36054 / 542

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jearls alive today are over 74; half the Jeannes are over 69. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jeanne and Jearl.