Humanverse

Jerilyn vs Jerry

American parents have registered 632,416 Jerrys since 1880, against 5,251 Jerilyns. Jerry is still ahead, with 262 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jerilyn against Jerry, 1880 to 2025 0 5k 10k 15k 20k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jerilyn Jerry

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

Jerry 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 2015, when Jerilyn had 21 and Jerry had 603.

Side by side

  Jerilyn Jerry
Total US births 5,251632,416
Most in one year 32519,263
Babies in 2025 7262
Estimated living today 4,200367,000
Median age today 6266
Peak year 19421947
Best rank 396th girls20th boys
Rank in 2025 11,932nd906th
First recorded 19311880
Girls / boys 5,251 / 017,314 / 615,102

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 Jerrys alive today are over 66; half the Jerilyns are over 62. That is 4 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: Jerilyn and Jerry.