Pearlean
Pearlean was last recorded in 1966, when 5 babies were given it; 1,066 Americans have been recorded with it between 1907 and 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Pearlean by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Pearlean?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #7,325, in 1966; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
37 babies in 1939, the peak
Pearlean peaked in 1939, when 37 girls were given it, #1,213 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 5 | #7,325 | 3.0 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,561 | 3.2 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,738 | 3.6 |
| 1962 | 8 | #5,171 | 4.1 |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,464 | 5.0 |
| 1960 | 8 | #5,071 | 4.0 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,049 | 3.0 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,925 | 3.0 |
| 1957 | 16 | #3,003 | 7.8 |
| 1956 | 14 | #3,285 | 7.0 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 19 | #2,614 | 9.7 |
| 1954 | 18 | #2,672 | 9.3 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,498 | 4.3 |
| 1952 | 21 | #2,312 | 11.3 |
| 1951 | 26 | #1,954 | 14.4 |
| 1950 | 21 | #2,171 | 12.3 |
| 1949 | 30 | #1,760 | 17.5 |
| 1948 | 21 | #2,171 | 12.4 |
| 1947 | 22 | #2,129 | 12.4 |
| 1946 | 28 | #1,708 | 17.8 |
| 1945 | 18 | #2,038 | 13.8 |
| 1944 | 17 | #2,175 | 12.8 |
| 1943 | 24 | #1,781 | 17.2 |
| 1942 | 23 | #1,792 | 17.0 |
| 1941 | 15 | #2,249 | 12.4 |
| 1940 | 19 | #1,884 | 16.6 |
| 1939 | 37 | #1,213 | 33.7 |
| 1938 | 20 | #1,795 | 18.1 |
| 1937 | 27 | #1,443 | 25.4 |
| 1936 | 31 | #1,311 | 29.8 |
| 1935 | 34 | #1,239 | 32.4 |
| 1934 | 34 | #1,231 | 32.6 |
| 1933 | 22 | #1,648 | 21.8 |
| 1932 | 30 | #1,374 | 28.1 |
| 1931 | 26 | #1,492 | 24.4 |
| 1930 | 35 | #1,285 | 31.1 |
| 1929 | 18 | #2,003 | 16.1 |
| 1928 | 19 | #2,006 | 16.5 |
| 1927 | 27 | #1,609 | 22.6 |
| 1926 | 20 | #1,980 | 16.9 |
| 1925 | 25 | #1,735 | 20.5 |
| 1924 | 17 | #2,291 | 13.6 |
| 1923 | 25 | #1,718 | 20.7 |
| 1922 | 28 | #1,604 | 23.3 |
| 1921 | 18 | #2,177 | 14.6 |
| 1920 | 14 | #2,559 | 11.7 |
| 1919 | 25 | #1,639 | 22.1 |
| 1918 | 15 | #2,354 | 13.0 |
| 1917 | 16 | #2,183 | 14.8 |
| 1916 | 13 | #2,461 | 12.4 |
| 1915 | 11 | #2,659 | 11.2 |
| 1914 | 12 | #2,099 | 15.8 |
| 1913 | 6 | #3,104 | 9.6 |
| 1912 | 8 | #2,308 | 14.3 |
| 1911 | 9 | #1,762 | 21.5 |
| 1910 | 8 | #1,895 | 20.2 |
| 1909 | 9 | #1,578 | 25.9 |
| 1908 | 6 | #2,049 | 17.9 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,312 | 15.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Pearlean a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Pearlean has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 59 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Pearlean: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Pearlean, and how old are they?
An estimated 351 Americans named Pearlean and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (33% of everyone recorded); the median is 77 years old and half are between 72 and 84. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 299 people named Pearlean (294 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 471 born in the U.S. The Census count is 37% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Pearlean born?
The states with the most babies named Pearlean are Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, with 90% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Mississippi and Alabama and Arkansas are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | 240 | not ranked | 10.9× |
| Alabama | 58 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Arkansas | 32 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| South Carolina | 15 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 10 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Texas | 6 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Georgia | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Pearlean is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Pearlean is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1910 it was given 10.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Pearlean with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,117 babies since 1880, Pearlean is the most given (95% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Pearlean
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Pearlean and names like it
- Compare Pearlean and PearleenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sPearlean peaked in 1939.
- Mississippi’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Pearlean since 1910.
- The top names of 1939The year the most babies were named Pearlean.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Pearlean alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with PMost given first.