Head to head · Girls' names
Chloe vs Penelope
#23 vs #22 in 2025
Penelope is a whisker ahead (#22 vs #23 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Penelope is climbing the charts fast, Chloe is holding its place on the charts.
Cast your vote2 votes
Which one would you pick?
2 parents have voted — the split shows after you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Penelope leads 3 measures of 6; Chloe leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Chloe #352, Penelope #892 — Chloe higher
- 1890s: Chloe #356, Penelope #1378 — Chloe higher
- 1900s: Chloe #499, Penelope #1827 — Chloe higher
- 1910s: Chloe #638, Penelope #1462 — Chloe higher
- 1920s: Chloe #858, Penelope #1005 — Chloe higher
- 1930s: Chloe #777, Penelope #830 — Chloe higher
- 1940s: Chloe #1168, Penelope #282 — Penelope higher
- 1950s: Chloe #2015, Penelope #411 — Penelope higher
- 1960s: Chloe #2809, Penelope #577 — Penelope higher
- 1970s: Chloe #1774, Penelope #882 — Penelope higher
- 1980s: Chloe #663, Penelope #1904 — Chloe higher
- 1990s: Chloe #137, Penelope #1903 — Chloe higher
- 2000s: Chloe #21, Penelope #649 — Chloe higher
- 2010s: Chloe #17, Penelope #73 — Chloe higher
- 2020s: Chloe #23, Penelope #24 — Chloe higher
Chloe stood higher in 11 of 15 decades; Chloe has held the lead since the 1980s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Chloe | Penelope |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #352 | #892 |
| 1890s | #356 | #1378 |
| 1900s | #499 | #1827 |
| 1910s | #638 | #1462 |
| 1920s | #858 | #1005 |
| 1930s | #777 | #830 |
| 1940s | #1168 | #282 |
| 1950s | #2015 | #411 |
| 1960s | #2809 | #577 |
| 1970s | #1774 | #882 |
| 1980s | #663 | #1904 |
| 1990s | #137 | #1903 |
| 2000s | #21 | #649 |
| 2010s | #17 | #73 |
| 2020s | #23 | #24 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Chloe
- Canada#8
- England & Wales#72
- Scotland#83
Penelope
- England & Wales#36
- Canada#49
- Scotland#71
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Chloe
green shoot; young green growth
From Greek χλόη (khloē), the fresh green of new grass or crops. It was used as an epithet of Demeter, goddess of grain and harvest.
Χλόη (Khloē) → Chloe (Latin) → Chloe (English) → Chloé (French)
How it traveled
The name is Greek, and it kept its Greek shape all the way through. It appears in the New Testament, where Paul sends greetings involving the household of a woman named Chloe in Corinth, and it appears in Greek literature in Longus's second-century romance Daphnis and Chloe.
Penelope
Either "weaver" or a kind of duck, from Greek
Two readings compete. One links Πηνελόπη to πήνη (pēnē), "thread" or "weft", plus a root meaning face or eye — a reading that suits the loom in the Odyssey so neatly that scholars have long suspected it was invented to fit. The other, generally preferred by Greek etymologists, connects the name to πηνέλοψ (pēnelops), a wild duck. Neither has won outright.
Πηνελόπη (Penelopē) → Penelope (Latin) → Penelope (English)
How it traveled
The name is Greek and reaches us first through the Odyssey, composed in the eighth century BC, where Penelope holds Ithaca together for twenty years of her husband's absence. Roman writers carried the spelling into Latin unchanged, and English took it up during the Renaissance revival of classical names, when educated families began christening daughters out of Homer and Ovid.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Chloe
KLOH-ee
Two syllables, with the stress on the first. The ch is a hard K, not the sound in chair. The French spelling Chloé and the older English Chloë both use their marks to signal that the final e is pronounced.
- Chlo — The everyday clipped form, used by family and friends; almost never written on anything official.
- Clo — Same short form, spelled phonetically, which sidesteps the silent h.
- Coco — An affectionate nickname rather than a derived one; it also stands alone as a name in French use.
- Chlo-Chlo — A doubled pet form used mostly within families and in early childhood.
Penelope
puh-NEL-uh-pee
Four syllables, stress on the second. The final -e is pronounced, not silent — readers who meet the name in print before they hear it sometimes try "PEN-uh-lope", which is the one thing to head off early.
- Penny — The standard English short form for generations, and long used as a given name in its own right.
- Pen — Clipped and informal, mostly within families and among friends.
- Nell — Used in British and Irish families, partly through Penelope's old role as an English substitute for Fionnghuala.
- Nellie — The older, more affectionate extension of Nell; also stands alone as a given name.
- Also Poppy.
Who has carried each name
Chloe
Chloe Kim (b. 2000) — Youngest woman ever to win Olympic snowboarding gold
Chloë Grace Moretz (b. 1997) — Kick-Ass and Carrie star acting since age six
Chloe Bennet (b. 1992) — Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star
Penelope
Penélope Cruz (b. 1974) — First Spanish actress to win an Oscar
Penelope Wilton (b. 1946) — Downton Abbey's Isobel Crawley
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Chloe if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesChloe is 2 syllables to Penelope's 4
Choose Penelope if you want…
- a name with more sound in itPenelope runs 4 syllables, Chloe 2
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Chloe
Strengths
- A settled, documented meaning from Greek — the green of new growth — which is a rare thing among short names.
- An unbroken written record from ancient Greek literature and the New Testament through to today's kindergartens.
- Recognized and pronounced across several languages, with only the accent mark changing between English and French.
To consider
- The spelling gets competition: Khloe, Cloe and Chloé all circulate, so expect to spell it out and to be asked whether there's an accent.
- Anyone meeting the written name cold may try a soft ch, as in chair, before being corrected. Most people only need telling once.
- It clusters strongly among children, teenagers and young adults rather than across all ages, so it reads as a name of recent generations.
Penelope
Strengths
- A documented record going back to Homer, with the spelling essentially unchanged since Latin — nothing about it needs explaining or defending.
- Penny, Pen and Nell are all long-established short forms, so there is a formal version and a casual one built in.
- Works in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese with at most an added accent, and Greek is its home language.
To consider
- The final -e trips people up in writing and in speech; expect a lifetime of gentle corrections from anyone who has only seen it on a page.
- It is climbing quickly, so a child born now may meet more Penelopes as a teenager than as a toddler, even if she is the only one in her year at first.
- Penny, the most natural short form, is also the word for a coin — worth knowing if you would rather she went by the full name.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Chloe
40%chance Chloe feels dated by 2040
Chloe sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
Penelope
59%chance Penelope feels dated by 2040
Penelope is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Chloe and Penelope in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Chloe and Penelope?
Put both to the vote.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Every list here names both Chloe and Penelope — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Chloe or Penelope — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Chloe or Penelope?
- Penelope, in 2025: Penelope ranked #22 with 6,225 babies; Chloe ranked #23 with 6,203 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Chloe or Penelope?
- Penelope. Over the last five years Chloe moved up 2 places; Penelope moved up 4 places.
- Which is the older name, Chloe or Penelope?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Chloe and Penelope?
- About 248,000 people named Chloe are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 104,000 people named Penelope are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Chloes or Penelopes in the classroom?
- Chloe will almost certainly be the only one in school. Penelope will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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