Perl
A diminutive form of the Germanic name Pearl, meaning a precious gem.
Name Census estimates that about 572 living Americans carry the first name Perl. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Perl today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Perl births was 2023 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Perl. 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 Perl with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Perl started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
572
~ 1 in 599,221 Americans
Peak year
2023
35 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
1931 SSA rank
#4,195
Tracked since 1883
Census
Perl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 538 people with the first name Perl, which placed it at #19,583 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
#19,583
National first-name rank
People counted
538
538 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Perl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Perl is White at 90.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.3%) and Black (2.8%). 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 Perl 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 Perl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.1% · 485
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 23
- Black or African American2.8% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Perl
Perl leans heavily female at 87.3% of total registrations, but 85 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Perl as a male name
- Ranked #4,195 in 1931
- 5 male births in 1931
- Peak: 1924 (9 births)
Perl as a female name
- Ranked #5,549 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (35 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Perl leans strongly female. 506 people counted with this name were female (93.2%), compared with 37 male bearers (6.8%).
Popularity
Perl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Perl from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 216 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Perl remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Perl 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 Perl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Perls live
Origin
Meaning and history of Perl
The name Perl is not a traditional given name but rather a modern term derived from the computer programming language of the same name. The language Perl was created by Larry Wall in 1987 and was initially a shortening of the phrase "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language."
Over time, the name Perl stuck, and it became associated with the language itself, which grew in popularity among computer programmers and software developers. While not a traditional given name, some parents have chosen to name their children Perl in recent years, likely inspired by the programming language and its widespread use in the technology industry.
There are no known historical references or ancient texts that mention the name Perl as a given name. It is a relatively modern coinage that emerged in the late 20th century with the advent of computer programming languages.
However, there are a few notable individuals who have been named Perl, although their numbers are likely small due to the unconventional nature of the name. One example is Perl Wolrich, a computer scientist and engineer who worked on developing microprocessor architectures at Intel.
Another individual named Perl is Perl von Gartzau, a German artist and designer known for her experimental fashion designs and installations. Perl von Gartzau was born in 1982 and continues to work in the art and design fields.
In the entertainment industry, there is an actress named Perl Courtney-Marriott, who has appeared in several television shows and films. Her birth year is not widely documented, but she has been active in the industry since the early 2000s.
While not a traditional given name with a long history, the name Perl has gained some traction in recent decades, likely due to the popularity of the programming language and its association with technology and innovation.
People
Perl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Perl as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Perl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Perl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 572 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Perl 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 599,221 US residents.
Is Perl a common name?
We classify Perl as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 668 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Perl most popular?
The single biggest year for Perl was 2023, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Perl is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Perl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 538 people with the name Perl, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,583 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 Perl 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 Perl?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Perl leans strongly female. 506 people counted with this name were female (93.2%), compared with 37 male bearers (6.8%). 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 Perl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Perl is White at 90.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.3%) and Black (2.8%). 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 Perl most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Perl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.1% (485 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 Perl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Perl a female name?
Yes, 87.3% of people registered as Perl in the SSA data are female. 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 Perl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Perl 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 Perl 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 common is the name Perl?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Perl at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.