Humanverse

Vermell vs Vernon

American parents have registered 148,389 Vernons since 1880, against 726 Vermells. Vernon is still ahead, with 133 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Vermell against Vernon, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Vermell Vernon

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

Vernon 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 1908, when Vermell had 5 and Vernon had 298.

Side by side

  Vermell Vernon
Total US births 726148,389
Most in one year 253,199
Babies in 2025 under 5133
Estimated living today 25056,000
Median age today 7564
Peak year 19261920
Best rank 1,667th girls65th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,382nd
First recorded 19081880
Girls / boys 726 / 01,976 / 146,413

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 Vermells alive today are over 75; half the Vernons are over 64. That is 11 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: Vermell and Vernon.