Jeri

Where Jeri comes from

The dictionaries list Jeri as a given name — a diminutive of the female given names Geraldine and Jerilyn, also used as a formal given name — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1918
    First appearance
    #3,512 among girls, 8 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1956
    Peak, #299
    893 babies named Jeri — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1968
    Jeri Ryan born
    American actress
  4. 1971
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #462.
  5. 1974
    Jeri Ellsworth born
    American entrepreneur and self-taught computer chip designer
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given names Geraldine and Jerilyn, also used as a formal given name.
Namesakes
  • Jeri Ryan · American actress, born 1968
  • Jeri Ellsworth · American entrepreneur and self-taught computer chip designer, born 1974
  • Jeri Taylor · American screenwriter, 1938–2024
  • Jeri Brown · American jazz singer, songwriter, and professor, born 1952
  • Jeri Southern · American singer, 1926–1991

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.