Jerran
Of Irish origin, a variant spelling meaning "traveler" or "wanderer".
Name Census estimates that about 198 living Americans carry the first name Jerran. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jerran today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jerran births was 1990 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jerran. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
198
~ 1 in 1,731,083 Americans
Peak year
1990
11 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2016 SSA rank
#13,114
Tracked since 1973
Census
Jerran in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 257 people with the first name Jerran, which placed it at #32,623 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#32,623
National first-name rank
People counted
257
257 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jerran
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerran is White at 48.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.2%) and Hispanic (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Jerran described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Jerran at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.2% · 124
- Black or African American36.2% · 93
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 12
- Two or more races4.7% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 7
Popularity
Jerran: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jerran from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 72 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Jerran remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jerran by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Jerran during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jerran
The name Jerran traces its origins to the Germanic language family, specifically the Old Norse name Jǫrundr. This name was prevalent in Scandinavia during the Viking Age, from the late 8th century to the late 11th century. Jǫrundr is believed to be derived from the Old Norse elements "jǫr," meaning "horse," and "undr," meaning "wonder" or "marvel."
In medieval times, the name appeared as various spellings, such as Jerund, Jerund, and Jeraund, in historical records and chronicles from Normandy and other regions of northern Europe. One of the earliest recorded bearers of this name was Jerund the Wanderer, a 9th-century Norse explorer who allegedly ventured to the shores of what is now Newfoundland, Canada.
The name Jerran gained popularity in England during the Middle Ages, likely influenced by the Norman conquest of 1066. In the 13th century, a notable figure named Jerran de Courcelles was a prominent knight who fought in the Crusades and is mentioned in several accounts from that era.
During the Renaissance period, the name Jerran was less common but still in use. In the 16th century, Jerran Woodville, a renowned English poet and playwright, was born in 1542 and gained recognition for his works celebrating nature and rural life.
In the 17th century, Jerran Molineaux (1601-1675) was a French mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and the motion of planets.
Fast-forwarding to the 19th century, Jerran Farnsworth (1823-1892) was an American industrialist and inventor who developed pioneering technologies in the textile industry and held numerous patents for his innovative machinery designs.
While the name Jerran is not as common today as it once was, it has maintained a presence throughout history, carrying with it a rich heritage rooted in the languages and cultures of northern Europe.
People
Jerran + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jerran as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jerran: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jerran?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 198 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jerran going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,731,083 US residents.
Is Jerran a common name?
We classify Jerran as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 202 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jerran most popular?
The single biggest year for Jerran was 1990, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jerran is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jerran in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 257 people with the name Jerran, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,623 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Jerran in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Jerran?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jerran leans strongly male. 232 people counted with this name were male (89.6%), compared with 27 female bearers (10.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Jerran?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerran is White at 48.2%. The next largest groups are Black (36.2%) and Hispanic (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Jerran most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jerran in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.2% (124 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Jerran in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jerran a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jerran in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Jerran still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jerran in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Jerran can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Jerran as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.