Jerry: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Jerry has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 632,139 births with this name, split between 17,314 girls and 614,825 boys. Because the larger side of that split is boys, this page follows the boys ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Jerry was 1947, when 18,791 boys received the name and it reached rank 20 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1947, Jerry accounted for 1.03% of all recorded boys births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Jerry by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Jerry becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Jerry can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

During the 1880s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 99 and 1,106 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1890s, Jerry recorded 1,140 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 125, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1900s, Jerry recorded 1,636 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 113, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1910s, Jerry recorded 6,486 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 131, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. During the 1920s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 61 and 17,449 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1930s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 16 and 80,689 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1940s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 14 and 167,250 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1950s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 24 and 136,571 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table.

During the 1960s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 37 and 93,540 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1970s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 45 and 48,351 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1980s, Jerry stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 94 and 25,757 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1990s, Jerry recorded 16,577 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 146, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2000s, Jerry recorded 10,643 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 261, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2010s, Jerry recorded 5,915 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 384, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2020s, Jerry recorded 1,715 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 601, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among boys, and the share of all boys births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 749 to 277, a change of -63.0 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Jerry stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Jerry recorded 1,251 births for boys, and in 2010 it recorded 749. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Jerry also appears on the girls side of the file, with 17,314 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 614,825 births recorded for boys, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the boys table only. Counting both sides together, Jerry totals 632,139 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 93 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among boys and a rank earned among girls describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Jerry with the full rankings for its peak year (1947) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Jerry were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 277 boys named Jerry, ranked 867 among boys that year.

When was Jerry most popular?
Jerry peaked in 1947 with 18,791 births for boys, reaching rank 20 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Jerry appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 632,139 births named Jerry from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/