Humanverse

Jerome vs Jeryl

American parents have registered 162,296 Jeromes since 1880, against 1,831 Jeryls. Jerome is still ahead, with 158 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jerome Jeryl

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 1955, when Jerome had 3,106 and Jeryl had 168.

Side by side

  Jerome Jeryl
Total US births 162,2961,831
Most in one year 3,129168
Babies in 2025 158under 5
Estimated living today 92,0001,400
Median age today 5967
Peak year 19541955
Best rank 114th boys768th girls
Rank in 2025 1,256thunranked
First recorded 18801924
Girls / boys 1,062 / 161,2341,029 / 802

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 Jeryls alive today are over 67; half the Jeromes are over 59. That is 8 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: Jerome and Jeryl.