Humanverse

Teri vs Terrilyn

American parents have registered 44,171 Teris since 1880, against 930 Terrilyns. Teri is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Teri Terrilyn

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

Teri has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1920 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2011, when Teri had 17 and Terrilyn had 5.

Side by side

  Teri Terrilyn
Total US births 44,171930
Most in one year 2,33960
Babies in 2025 7under 5
Estimated living today 39,000830
Median age today 6157
Peak year 19601958
Best rank 171st girls1,364th girls
Rank in 2025 11,932ndunranked
First recorded 19201946
Girls / boys 43,957 / 214930 / 0

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 Teris alive today are over 61; half the Terrilyns are over 57. 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: Teri and Terrilyn.