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Pearlena vs Pearly

American parents have registered 1,897 Pearlys since 1880, against 335 Pearlenas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Pearlena against Pearly, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Pearlena Pearly

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

Of the 85 years in which either name was published, Pearly for 84 years and Pearlena for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Pearlena Pearly
Total US births 3351,897
Most in one year 1661
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 100560
Median age today 7776
Peak year 19371924
Best rank 1,999th girls1,069th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19051884
Girls / boys 335 / 01,689 / 208

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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Pearlena and Pearly.