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Vernon vs Vertie

American parents have registered 148,389 Vernons since 1880, against 1,548 Verties. Vernon is still ahead, with 133 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Vernon Vertie

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 1888, when Vernon had 78 and Vertie had 15.

Side by side

  Vernon Vertie
Total US births 148,3891,548
Most in one year 3,19950
Babies in 2025 133under 5
Estimated living today 56,000210
Median age today 6481
Peak year 19201916
Best rank 65th boys964th girls
Rank in 2025 1,382ndunranked
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 1,976 / 146,4131,543 / 5

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 Verties alive today are over 81; half the Vernons are over 64. That is 17 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: Vernon and Vertie.