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Perry vs Elijah

How Perry and Elijah compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Perry

Male · Anglo

Meaning: Pear Tree

Elijah

Male · Hebrew

Meaning: Jehovah Is God

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Perry (boys) vs Elijah (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Perry Elijah
Peak year (most US births) 2000 — 263 boys 2011 — 13,997 boys
Peak rank #679 #13
Most recent rank (2006) #957 (195 births) #7 (11,111 births)
Total US births since 1880 1,569 345,561
Last 10 years (1997–2006) 1,569 125,763

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Elijah reached 13,997 US births in 2011 — 13,734 more than Perry's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Perry — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Wisconsin #791 23
2 South Carolina #796 15
3 Virginia #807 25
4 Missouri #833 25
5 Michigan #901 23

Elijah — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Arkansas #3 1,358
2 Louisiana #3 2,113
3 New Mexico #4 821
4 Oklahoma #4 1,558
5 Florida #4 8,344

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →