Humanverse

Jermaine vs Jermel

American parents have registered 42,994 Jermaines since 1880, against 1,352 Jermels. Jermaine is still ahead, with 118 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jermaine Jermel

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

Jermaine has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1923 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1969, when Jermaine had 11 and Jermel had 5.

Side by side

  Jermaine Jermel
Total US births 42,9941,352
Most in one year 2,09756
Babies in 2025 1186
Estimated living today 41,0001,300
Median age today 4137
Peak year 19731981
Best rank 127th boys1,225th boys
Rank in 2025 1,492nd10,695th
First recorded 19231969
Girls / boys 967 / 42,0275 / 1,347

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 Jermaines alive today are over 41; half the Jermels are over 37. 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: Jermaine and Jermel.