Humanverse

Verna vs Vernia

American parents have registered 69,638 Vernas since 1880, against 1,288 Vernias. Verna is still ahead, with 44 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Verna against Vernia, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Verna Vernia

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

Verna 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 1885, when Verna had 108 and Vernia had 5.

Side by side

  Verna Vernia
Total US births 69,6381,288
Most in one year 1,88540
Babies in 2025 44under 5
Estimated living today 18,000370
Median age today 7275
Peak year 19181917
Best rank 125th girls1,126th girls
Rank in 2025 3,459thunranked
First recorded 18801885
Girls / boys 69,113 / 5251,288 / 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 Vernias alive today are over 75; half the Vernas are over 72. That is 3 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: Verna and Vernia.