9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Terry vs Evelyn

How Terry and Evelyn 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

Terry

Female · English

Meaning: Abbreviation Of Teresa Which Is A Popular Saint's Name Of Uncertain Meaning.

Evelyn

Female · Celtic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Terry (boys) vs Evelyn (girls), 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 Terry Evelyn
Peak year (most US births) 1957 — 15,618 boys 1921 — 14,278 girls
Peak rank #33 #12
Most recent rank (2022) #978 (231 births) #8 (9,123 births)
Total US births since 1880 377,534 555,984
Last 10 years (2013–2022) 3,035 97,423

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Terry reached 15,618 US births in 1957 — 1,340 more than Evelyn's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Terry births Evelyn births
1943 Terry 5,737 4,912
2000 Evelyn 847 2,223

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.

Terry — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Mississippi #399 68
2 Kentucky #510 72
3 Louisiana #548 84
4 Alabama #552 67
5 Arkansas #584 22

Evelyn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Minnesota #3 2,360
2 Wisconsin #3 2,223
3 Oregon #4 1,348
4 Iowa #4 1,220
5 Idaho #4 719

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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 →