Humanverse

Jeremiah vs Jerolyn

American parents have registered 226,373 Jeremiahs since 1880, against 544 Jerolyns. Jeremiah is still ahead, with 3,849 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jeremiah against Jerolyn, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jeremiah Jerolyn

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

Jeremiah 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 1954, when Jeremiah had 170 and Jerolyn had 35.

Side by side

  Jeremiah Jerolyn
Total US births 226,373544
Most in one year 7,75635
Babies in 2025 3,849under 5
Estimated living today 215,000370
Median age today 1870
Peak year 20101954
Best rank 51st boys1,739th girls
Rank in 2025 88thunranked
First recorded 18801927
Girls / boys 699 / 225,674544 / 0

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 Jerolyns alive today are over 70; half the Jeremiahs are over 18. That is 52 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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