Humanverse

Teri vs Teryl

American parents have registered 44,171 Teris since 1880, against 1,042 Teryls. Teri is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Teri Teryl

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 1939, when Teri had 21 and Teryl had 5.

Side by side

  Teri Teryl
Total US births 44,1711,042
Most in one year 2,33944
Babies in 2025 7under 5
Estimated living today 39,000840
Median age today 6165
Peak year 19601956
Best rank 171st girls1,796th girls
Rank in 2025 11,932ndunranked
First recorded 19201939
Girls / boys 43,957 / 214779 / 263

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 Teryls alive today are over 65; half the Teris are over 61. 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 Teryl.