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Pearline vs Peat

American parents have registered 6,262 Pearlines since 1880, against 8 Peats. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Pearline against Peat, 1880 to 2025 0 50 100 150 200 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pearline Peat

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

Pearline has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1889 to 2016. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1920, when Pearline had 135 and Peat had 8.

Side by side

  Pearline Peat
Total US births 6,2628
Most in one year 1878
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 2,0000
Median age today 75105
Peak year 19271920
Best rank 514th girls3,208th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 18891920
Girls / boys 6,262 / 00 / 8

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 Peats alive today are over 105; half the Pearlines are over 75. That is 30 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pearline and Peat.