Recorded 1897–2021 · United States
Vernell was most popular in 1935, when 215 American babies were given the name — ranking #794 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 10,468 people named Vernell.
Vernell first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1897, which makes it about 128 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 117 of the 129 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 10,468 American births named Vernell 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 5,127 are estimated to be alive today.
Vernell was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Vernell is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 6 births a year across 2021–2025 against 9 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.
Across the whole record Vernell is a unisex name — 68.1% of the 10,468 Americans given it were girls and 31.9% were boys. It changed hands: since 1970 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.
Roughly 5,127 Americans named Vernell are alive today — 49% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 69 years old, and half are between 55 and 78.
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.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Vernell on the interactive charts
About · Privacy · Contact
Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org