Humanverse

Verdell vs Vern

American parents have registered 11,982 Verns since 1880, against 3,425 Verdells. Vern is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Verdell against Vern, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Verdell Vern

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 136 years in which either name was published, Vern for 130 years and Verdell for 6 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Verdell Vern
Total US births 3,42511,982
Most in one year 81282
Babies in 2025 under 57
Estimated living today 1,6003,700
Median age today 6968
Peak year 19321920
Best rank 923rd girls359th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked9,714th
First recorded 19071880
Girls / boys 2,085 / 1,340485 / 11,497

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.

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: Verdell and Vern.