Fern
Fern is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 184 births. Its best rank was 152nd, in 1916.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1840.01% of girls
- Peak year
- 19181,341 births
- Best rank
- #152in 1916
- Since 1880
- 37,477people given the name
The story in the numbers
37,477 girls have been named Fern in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 1,341 births — 0.12% of all girls recorded that year.
It is rising: its share of births is at least one and a half times what it was ten years ago.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1923, and the 1920s alone account for 27%. It has spent 82 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Fern | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 434 | |
| 1890s | 1,937 | |
| 1900s | 2,813 | |
| 1910s | 9,250 | |
| 1920s | 10,254 | |
| 1930s | 4,570 | |
| 1940s | 2,803 | |
| 1950s | 2,213 | |
| 1960s | 985 | |
| 1970s | 299 | |
| 1980s | 174 | |
| 1990s | 97 | |
| 2000s | 167 | |
| 2010s | 717 | |
| 2020s | 764 |
In 1918, its biggest year
Fern was the 164th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1918 were Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1918.
Names that rose and fell with Fern
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Irenepeak 1921
- Verapeak 1918
- Ruthpeak 1920
- Ionepeak 1920
- Lurlinepeak 1921
- Helenpeak 1918
- Fernepeak 1916
- Hazlepeak 1924
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.