Humanverse

Vergean vs Vern

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

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Vergean 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

Vern 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 1931, when Vergean had 7 and Vern had 201.

Side by side

  Vergean Vern
Total US births 711,982
Most in one year 7282
Babies in 2025 under 57
Estimated living today 13,700
Median age today 9468
Peak year 19311920
Best rank 3,497th girls359th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked9,714th
First recorded 19311880
Girls / boys 7 / 0485 / 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.

Which name is older

Half of the Vergeans alive today are over 94; half the Verns are over 68. That is 26 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Vergean and Vern.