Humanverse

Jeffery vs Jeffory

American parents have registered 231,818 Jefferys since 1880, against 1,166 Jefforys. Jeffery is still ahead, with 110 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jeffery against Jeffory, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jeffery Jeffory

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

Jeffery has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1894 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1945, when Jeffery had 364 and Jeffory had 7.

Side by side

  Jeffery Jeffory
Total US births 231,8181,166
Most in one year 9,33152
Babies in 2025 110under 5
Estimated living today 193,000940
Median age today 5659
Peak year 19621967
Best rank 45th boys1,003rd boys
Rank in 2025 1,554thunranked
First recorded 18941943
Girls / boys 1,269 / 230,5490 / 1,166

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 Jefforys alive today are over 59; half the Jefferys are over 56. 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: Jeffery and Jeffory.