Jerry

Where Jerry comes from

Clipping + -y.
— Wiktionary's entry for Jerry
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #99 among boys — 136 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1926
    Jerry Lewis born
    American comedian, actor and film director
  3. 1941
    Peak, #14
    16,799 babies named Jerry — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1947
    Jerry Rawlings born
    fourth President of the Republic of Ghana
  5. 1967
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #41.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the male given names Gerald, Gerard, Jeremy, Jeremiah, Jared, Jerome, Jermaine, Jerrold, and similar male given names.
  • A diminutive of the female given names Geraldine and Jerilyn.
  • An unincorporated community in Asotin County, Washington, United States; named for early rancher Jerry McGuire.
Namesakes
  • Jerry Lewis · American comedian, actor and film director, 1926–2017
  • Jerry Rawlings · fourth President of the Republic of Ghana, 1947–2020
  • Jerry West · American basketball player and executive, 1938–2024
  • Jerry Brown · Governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019, born 1938
  • Jerry Yang · founder of Yahoo!, born 1968

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.