Humanverse

Jerlean vs Jerome

American parents have registered 162,296 Jeromes since 1880, against 683 Jerleans. Jerome is still ahead, with 158 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jerlean against Jerome, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jerlean Jerome

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

Jerome 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 1932, when Jerlean had 26 and Jerome had 1,679.

Side by side

  Jerlean Jerome
Total US births 683162,296
Most in one year 263,129
Babies in 2025 under 5158
Estimated living today 29092,000
Median age today 7759
Peak year 19321954
Best rank 1,488th girls114th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,256th
First recorded 19141880
Girls / boys 683 / 01,062 / 161,234

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 Jerleans alive today are over 77; half the Jeromes are over 59. That is 18 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: Jerlean and Jerome.