Jerry
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "blessed wanderer."
Name Census estimates that about 400,270 living Americans carry the first name Jerry. It is a predominantly male name (97.3% of registrations). The average person named Jerry today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jerry births was 1947 (19,260 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jerry. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Jerry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jerry is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 17,314 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Jerry have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
400K
~ 1 in 856 Americans
Peak year
1947
19,260 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#867
Tracked since 1880
Census
Jerry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 369,614 people with the first name Jerry, which placed it at #132 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
#132
National first-name rank
People counted
370K
369,614 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
122.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jerry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerry is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Jerry 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 Jerry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.0% · 284,581
- Black or African American11.3% · 41,890
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 20,609
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 9,741
- Two or more races2.5% · 9,400
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3,393
Gender
Gender distribution for Jerry
Jerry leans heavily male at 97.3% of total registrations, but 17,314 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jerry as a male name
- Ranked #867 in 2024
- 277 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (18,791 births)
Jerry as a female name
- Ranked #14,905 in 2017
- 6 female births in 2017
- Peak: 1943 (626 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jerry leans strongly male. 362,580 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 7,031 female bearers (1.9%).
Popularity
Jerry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jerry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 172,231 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jerry 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 Jerry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,106 | 0 | 1,106 |
| 1890s | 1,140 | 7 | 1,147 |
| 1900s | 1,636 | 120 | 1,756 |
| 1910s | 6,486 | 787 | 7,273 |
| 1920s | 17,449 | 2,177 | 19,626 |
| 1930s | 80,689 | 4,151 | 84,840 |
| 1940s | 167,250 | 4,981 | 172,231 |
| 1950s | 136,571 | 2,528 | 139,099 |
| 1960s | 93,540 | 1,234 | 94,774 |
| 1970s | 48,351 | 730 | 49,081 |
| 1980s | 25,757 | 394 | 26,151 |
| 1990s | 16,577 | 150 | 16,727 |
| 2000s | 10,643 | 49 | 10,692 |
| 2010s | 5,915 | 6 | 5,921 |
| 2020s | 1,715 | 0 | 1,715 |
Geography
Where Jerrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Jerry, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12,213 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jerry
The name Jerry is an English diminutive form of the male given name Gerald. Gerald itself derives from the Germanic elements ger, meaning "spear", and waltan, meaning "to rule". The name can be traced back to the Old English period, around the 5th to 11th centuries CE.
While the name Gerald has its origins in Germanic languages, the shortened form Jerry became popular in English-speaking countries. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jerry dates back to the late 16th century in England.
In terms of historical references, the name Jerry is not commonly found in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, there have been several notable individuals throughout history who bore this name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals was Sir Jerry Greenville (1537-1591), an English sailor and privateer who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Another early example is the English Puritan minister Jeremiah Burroughs (c. 1599-1646), who was a prominent figure during the English Civil War.
In the 18th century, Jerry Prendergast (c. 1700-1782) was an Irish politician and landowner who served as a member of the Irish House of Commons. During the same period, the English caricaturist and satirical artist James Gillray (1757-1815) was often referred to by his nickname, Jerry.
Moving into the 19th century, the American author and humorist Jeremiah "Jerry" Clemens (1833-1908) was a cousin of Mark Twain and served as a Union Army soldier during the American Civil War.
In the 20th century, Jerry Siegel (1914-1996) was the co-creator of the iconic comic book superhero Superman, along with artist Joe Shuster. Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) was the lead guitarist and vocalist of the legendary rock band The Grateful Dead, known for his influential guitar work and distinctive vocal style.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals named Jerry throughout history, showcasing the name's longevity and its presence across various fields and cultures.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jerry
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Jerry Coleman
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Jerry Costello
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Jerry Garcia
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Jerry Goldsmith
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Jerry Hairston
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Jerry Hall
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Jerry Jameson
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Jerry Koosman
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Jerry Kramer
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Jerry Lawler
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Jerry Lewis
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Jerry London
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Jerry Lucas
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Jerry Mcnerney
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Jerry Moran
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Jerry Oconnell
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Jerry Orbach
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Jerry Porter
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Jerry Rice
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Jerry Schatzberg
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Jerry Seinfeld
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Jerry Springer
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Jerry Weller
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Jerry West
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Jerry Zucker
People
Jerry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jerry 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
Jerry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jerry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 400,270 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jerry 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 856 US residents.
Is Jerry a common name?
We classify Jerry as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 632,139 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jerry most popular?
The single biggest year for Jerry was 1947, when 19,260 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jerry is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jerry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 369,614 people with the name Jerry, or 122.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #132 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 Jerry 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 Jerry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jerry leans strongly male. 362,580 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 7,031 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Jerry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jerry is White at 77.0%. The next largest groups are Black (11.3%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Jerry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jerry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.0% (284,581 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 Jerry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jerry a male name?
Yes, 97.3% of people registered as Jerry 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 Jerry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jerry 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 Jerry 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 are called Jerry?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.