Humanverse

Jerline vs Jermaine

American parents have registered 42,994 Jermaines since 1880, against 1,138 Jerlines. Jermaine is still ahead, with 118 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jerline against Jermaine, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jerline Jermaine

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

Of the 108 years in which either name was published, Jermaine for 58 years and Jerline for 50 years. The lead changed hands 3 times.

Side by side

  Jerline Jermaine
Total US births 1,13842,994
Most in one year 412,097
Babies in 2025 under 5118
Estimated living today 46041,000
Median age today 7841
Peak year 19401973
Best rank 1,132nd girls127th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,492nd
First recorded 19141923
Girls / boys 1,138 / 0967 / 42,027

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 Jerlines alive today are over 78; half the Jermaines are over 41. That is 37 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: Jerline and Jermaine.