Pearlena vs Pearlie
American parents have registered 18,828 Pearlies since 1880, against 335 Pearlenas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Pearlena Pearlie
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
Pearlie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2023. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1966, when Pearlena had 5 and Pearlie had 60.
Side by side
| Pearlena | Pearlie | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 335 | 18,828 |
| Most in one year | 16 | 411 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 100 | 5,500 |
| Median age today | 77 | 76 |
| Peak year | 1937 | 1937 |
| Best rank | 1,999th girls | 315th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1905 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 335 / 0 | 18,129 / 699 |
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.
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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pearlena and Pearlie.