Humanverse

Vern vs Verta

American parents have registered 11,982 Verns since 1880, against 1,093 Vertas. Vern is still ahead, with 7 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Vern Verta

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 1902, when Vern had 30 and Verta had 13.

Side by side

  Vern Verta
Total US births 11,9821,093
Most in one year 28233
Babies in 2025 7under 5
Estimated living today 3,700240
Median age today 6877
Peak year 19201922
Best rank 359th boys1,403rd girls
Rank in 2025 9,714thunranked
First recorded 18801887
Girls / boys 485 / 11,4971,093 / 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 Vertas alive today are over 77; half the Verns are over 68. That is 9 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: Vern and Verta.