NameYear

Mostly boys · peaked in 1954

Terry name popularity since 1925

518,850 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Terry (18.5% girls, 81.5% boys). Half of them were born in 1958 or earlier, so the typical Terry is about 68 years old in 2026. Terry peaked in 1954 as the #27 name for boys, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925
518,850
Named Terry, 1925–2025
Peak year
1954
#27 for boys that year
Typical age
About 68
Median birth year 1958
In 2025
Not top 1,000
#1,116 for boys in 2025
Girls / boys
81.5% boys
96,111 girls · 422,739 boys
Most popular in
West Virginia
1.81× its national share

Peak year is the year Terry made up the largest share of US boys, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Terry births per year, 1925–2025

Babies named Terry per year, 1925–2025

The biggest year by count was 1957. Measured as a share of all babies, Terry peaked in 1954.

  • Fastest rise: Between 1931 and 1936, Terry became 4.5× more common.
  • Steepest fall: Between 2016 and 2021, its share of baby boys fell by 40%, from 1 in 4,890 to 1 in 8,180.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Terry's share of all US boys five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Terry.

Decade by decade

Babies named Terry in each decade, and its rank among boys' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade GirlsBoys Rank
1925–29 717975 –
1930s 1,92611,025 #154
1940s 13,69876,965 #33
1950s 43,194140,724 #28
1960s 27,638101,489 #40
1970s 5,77842,426 #67
1980s 1,95124,157 #119
1990s 75213,040 #245
2000s 2806,638 #406
2010s 1334,047 #663
2020–25 441,253 #1,116

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 boys that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

62.2% of babies named Terry from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Baby Boom years (1946–1964). The full split by generation:

Terry by generation Greatest Generation born 1925–27 0.2% Silent Generation born 1928–45 9.3% Baby Boomers born 1946–64 62.2% Gen X born 1965–80 18.9% Millennials born 1981–96 6.5% Gen Z born 1997–2012 2.2% Gen Alpha born 2013–25 0.8%

Where Terry is most popular

The index compares Terry's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Terry.

StateIndexBabies
West Virginia1.81×8,284
South Dakota1.79×2,965
Tennessee1.74×19,011
Oklahoma1.73×11,734
Arkansas1.69×9,034

Names with a similar story

Of the other 499 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Terry's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Terry.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Terry (1954).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data