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Jerold

Boys' name

Variant of Gerald

Jerold has been given to 7,434 babies in the U.S. since 1912. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1942, with 228 recorded.

Babies named Jerold, 2022

1 in 484,000

Jerold over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Jerold: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Gerald

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Jerold means

Jerold is a variant of Gerald.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Jerold is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈd͡ʒɛɹ.əld/ for Jerold.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Jerold → Gerald. The family’s proposed meaning is “spear + might, power”, recorded in English with the source elements gaiʀ and wald.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gerald.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,434 boys were recorded with the name Jerold between 1912 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 228 in 1942; its best national rank was #403 in 1942.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Jerold?

Jerold had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 484,000
7 of 3,385,755 births
Among boys only
1 in 249,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
335,262 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Jerold sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2022 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 335,262 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Jerold. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Jerolds were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Jerold was born before 1950 — so the typical Jerold is around 75 today.

Median birth year
1950
About 75 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
25.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,885
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 25.1% of all recorded uses (1,867).

Is Jerold rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1942 (228)
Years since peak
83
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#403
1942

Spellings of Jerold

Jerold is not the most common spelling — Harold is, with 43.2% against Jerold's 0.58%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Jerold is used

Across 1910–2025, Jerold was most concentrated in Wisconsin — about 1 in 8,333 boys, against 1 in 39,287 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

012 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Wisconsin1 in 8,333
  2. 2Iowa1 in 14,286
  3. 3Nebraska1 in 14,286
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 16,667
  5. 5Kansas1 in 20,000
  6. 6Michigan1 in 20,000
  7. 7Ohio1 in 20,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 25,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Jerold has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Jerold

People whose public names include Jerold, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Jerold in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Jerold. Linked forms have their own page here.

Jerry

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Jerold by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#403
1942
Peak year
1942
228 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
7,434
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Jerold

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

JerroldJerrodJeromyJerrellJerodJerichoJeraldJeriahJeremieJeredJerronJerelJerellJeremiJermiahJermelJeramyJersonJerimiahJeremiasJeronJeramiahJerielJerrick

Names with a curve like Jerold

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Jerold, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

PatriciaFredricJereGaylonKennithDannieDickieGlynnDonnGearldWindellWally

Sibling names for Jerold

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Jerold

Top names of 1942, Jerold's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1942Boys' names starting with J