Vernal

Where Vernal comes from

Vernal hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1894
    First appearance
    #1,074 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1898
    Peak, #885
    7 babies named Vernal — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1899
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  4. 1911
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  5. 1925
    Vernal G. Riffe, Jr. born
    American politician
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Vernal G. Riffe, Jr. · American politician, 1925–1997

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.