Humanverse

Terrence vs Teryn

American parents have registered 72,939 Terrences since 1880, against 1,634 Teryns. Terrence is still ahead, with 107 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Terrence against Teryn, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Terrence Teryn

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

Terrence has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2004, when Terrence had 354 and Teryn had 46.

Side by side

  Terrence Teryn
Total US births 72,9391,634
Most in one year 1,50865
Babies in 2025 107under 5
Estimated living today 58,0001,600
Median age today 4928
Peak year 19551985
Best rank 181st boys1,882nd girls
Rank in 2025 1,585thunranked
First recorded 18861959
Girls / boys 527 / 72,4121,373 / 261

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 Terrences alive today are over 49; half the Teryns are over 28. That is 21 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: Terrence and Teryn.