Perrin vs Persephone
American parents have registered 4,960 Persephones since 1880, against 2,047 Perrins. Persephone is still ahead, with 372 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Perrin Persephone
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 91 years in which either name was published, Perrin for 63 years and Persephone for 28 years. The lead changed hands 9 times.
- 1899–1971 Perrin ahead
- 1972 Persephone ahead
- 1973 Perrin ahead
- 1974–1977 Persephone ahead
- 1978–1980 Perrin ahead
- 1981 Persephone ahead
- 1982–2002 Perrin ahead
- 2003 Persephone ahead
- 2004 Perrin ahead
- 2005–2025 Persephone ahead
Side by side
| Perrin | Persephone | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,047 | 4,960 |
| Most in one year | 62 | 429 |
| Babies in 2025 | 27 | 372 |
| Estimated living today | 1,900 | 4,900 |
| Median age today | 20 | 6 |
| Peak year | 2007 | 2022 |
| Best rank | 2,602nd boys | 681st girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 4,539th | 734th |
| First recorded | 1899 | 1962 |
| Girls / boys | 479 / 1,568 | 4,960 / 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 Perrins alive today are over 20; half the Persephones are over 6. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Perrin California (4.4×)
- Persephone Oregon (3.0×), Arizona (2.8×), Nevada (2.6×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Perrin | Persephone |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 43 | 863 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Perrin and Persephone.