Pernell
Recorded 1915–2025 · United States
Pernell was most popular in 1964, when 183 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,322 that year. In 2025 it ranked #22,044, with 6 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 3,312 people named Pernell.
Pernell over time
How old is the name Pernell?
Pernell first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1915, which makes it about 110 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 109 of the 111 years since.
How many people are named Pernell?
The Social Security Administration has recorded 3,312 American births named Pernell between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 2,496 are estimated to be alive today.
How many babies were named Pernell in 2025?
6 American babies were named Pernell in 2025, ranking #22,044 that year.
Is Pernell getting more or less popular?
Pernell is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 6 births a year across 2021–2025 against 10 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Is Pernell a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Across the whole record Pernell is mostly a boy’s name — 8.3% of the 3,312 Americans given it were girls and 91.7% were boys. It changed hands: since 1938 it has gone mainly to boys, having gone mainly to girls before that. In births since 2016 it is 0% girls and 100% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
How old is someone named Pernell?
Roughly 2,496 Americans named Pernell are alive today — 75% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 53 years old, and half are between 37 and 62.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Where Pernell is most concentrated
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
Explore further
See Pernell on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org