Humanverse

Jeffrey vs Jefrey

American parents have registered 983,099 Jeffreys since 1880, against 767 Jefreys. Jeffrey is still ahead, with 544 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jeffrey against Jefrey, 1880 to 2025 0 10k 20k 30k 40k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jeffrey Jefrey

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

Jeffrey has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1885 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2009, when Jeffrey had 1,719 and Jefrey had 13.

Side by side

  Jeffrey Jefrey
Total US births 983,099767
Most in one year 33,61520
Babies in 2025 544under 5
Estimated living today 820,000690
Median age today 5542
Peak year 19621967
Best rank 10th boys1,758th boys
Rank in 2025 552ndunranked
First recorded 18851950
Girls / boys 3,498 / 979,6010 / 767

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 Jeffreys alive today are over 55; half the Jefreys are over 42. That is 13 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: Jeffrey and Jefrey.