Humanverse

Vera vs Verenice

American parents have registered 149,854 Veras since 1880, against 1,625 Verenices. Vera is still ahead, with 1,482 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Vera against Verenice, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Vera Verenice

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

Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Vera for 144 years and Verenice for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Vera Verenice
Total US births 149,8541,625
Most in one year 3,93486
Babies in 2025 1,4828
Estimated living today 49,0001,600
Median age today 6027
Peak year 19181993
Best rank 68th girls1,725th girls
Rank in 2025 205th10,917th
First recorded 18801972
Girls / boys 149,456 / 3981,625 / 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 Veras alive today are over 60; half the Verenices are over 27. That is 33 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: Vera and Verenice.