Humanverse

Vera vs Verlie

American parents have registered 149,854 Veras since 1880, against 2,460 Verlies. Vera is still ahead, with 1,482 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Vera Verlie

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

Vera has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1887, when Vera had 167 and Verlie had 13.

Side by side

  Vera Verlie
Total US births 149,8542,460
Most in one year 3,93482
Babies in 2025 1,482under 5
Estimated living today 49,000420
Median age today 6079
Peak year 19181917
Best rank 68th girls788th girls
Rank in 2025 205thunranked
First recorded 18801887
Girls / boys 149,456 / 3982,282 / 178

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 Verlies alive today are over 79; half the Veras are over 60. That is 19 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 Verlie.