Perl
#4,435 in 2025UnisexGirls' nameBoys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Perl has been given to 701 babies in the U.S. since 1929. In 2025 it ranked #4,435 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 35 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 88% girls, 12% boys all-time.
Babies named Perl, 2025
1 in 104,000
Perl over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Perl over time
In 2025, Perl went to 100% girls and 0% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Perl?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 104,000
- 32 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 50,200
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #4,435
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 71,810 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Perl sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 71,810 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Perl. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Perls were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Perl was born before 2014 — so the typical Perl is around 11 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 35.1% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 83.6%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 611
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 35.1% of all recorded uses (216).
Is Perl 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
- +970
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +1,366
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +2,225
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 1.68×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 91.4%
- Peak was 2023 (35)
- Years since peak
- 2
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 27.5% average annual change
Spellings of Perl
Perl is not the most common spelling — Pearl is, with 25.2% against Perl's 0.10%.
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 Perl is used
Across 1910–2025, Perl was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 32,484 across all states with data.
Most concentrated
- 1New York1 in 33,333
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Perl has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Perl around the world
Where Perl ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- England & Wales2013–2020#5,493in 2020
- France1997–1997#4,244in 1997
- South Australia2003–2003#739in 2003
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Perl by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Perl
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Perl
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.