Pearlene vs Pearly
American parents have registered 1,958 Pearlenes since 1880, against 1,897 Pearlys. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Pearlene 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 89 years in which either name was published, Pearly for 50 years and Pearlene for 39 years. The lead changed hands 16 times.
- 1884–1926 Pearly ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1933–1967 Pearlene ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1980–2022 Pearly ahead
11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Pearlene | Pearly | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,958 | 1,897 |
| Most in one year | 64 | 61 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 800 | 560 |
| Median age today | 76 | 76 |
| Peak year | 1938 | 1924 |
| Best rank | 875th girls | 1,069th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1906 | 1884 |
| Girls / boys | 1,958 / 0 | 1,689 / 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.
Where each one is strongest
- Pearlene Mississippi (13.1×), Arkansas (12.1×), North Carolina (6.3×)
- Pearly Louisiana (26.1×), Mississippi (8.2×), South Carolina (5.3×)
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: Pearlene and Pearly.