Head to head · Girls' names
Penny vs Persephone
#740 vs #734 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Persephone is a whisker ahead (#734 vs #740 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Each name in full: Penny · Persephone
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Penny and Persephone each lead 3 measures of 6.
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
Penny — holding its place on the charts. About 85,500 people named Penny are estimated to be alive in the US today.
Persephone — holding its place on the charts. About 4,900 people named Persephone are estimated to be alive in the US today.
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Penny #1022, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1890s: Penny #1404, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1900s: Penny #1729, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1910s: Penny #1953, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1920s: Penny #1178, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1930s: Penny #909, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1940s: Penny #190, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1950s: Penny #149, Persephone — — Penny higher
- 1960s: Penny #108, Persephone #5966 — Penny higher
- 1970s: Penny #233, Persephone #5833 — Penny higher
- 1980s: Penny #715, Persephone #8235 — Penny higher
- 1990s: Penny #1946, Persephone #6293 — Penny higher
- 2000s: Penny #2798, Persephone #3743 — Penny higher
- 2010s: Penny #947, Persephone #1320 — Penny higher
- 2020s: Penny #720, Persephone #748 — Penny higher
Penny stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Penny | Persephone |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #1022 | — |
| 1890s | #1404 | — |
| 1900s | #1729 | — |
| 1910s | #1953 | — |
| 1920s | #1178 | — |
| 1930s | #909 | — |
| 1940s | #190 | — |
| 1950s | #149 | — |
| 1960s | #108 | #5966 |
| 1970s | #233 | #5833 |
| 1980s | #715 | #8235 |
| 1990s | #1946 | #6293 |
| 2000s | #2798 | #3743 |
| 2010s | #947 | #1320 |
| 2020s | #720 | #748 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Penny
Short form of Penelope; also the English coin
Penelope's Greek root is argued two ways: from pēnē, the weft or thread on a loom, which suits Homer's weaving heroine, and from pēnelops, a kind of duck named in Greek myth. Scholars have never resolved it. Separately, Penny is identical to the English word for the coin, from Old English penig — an overlap of sound rather than a shared root."
Pēnelopeia → Penelope → Penny
How it traveled
The name behind it is Penelope, from the Greek Pēnelopeia, carried into English through the Latin and Greek texts read in schools from the Renaissance onward. Penelope stayed a somewhat literary choice in English for centuries, and Penny grew up beside it as the everyday form — the version used at home, at school, across the kitchen.
Persephone
Not established
No one has settled it. The name resists Greek explanation, and ancient sources spell it several different ways — Persephone, Persephassa, Phersephone — which is usually a sign of a word borrowed into Greek from an older language of the region rather than built inside it. Ancient Greek writers themselves reached for a folk etymology linking it to words for bringing destruction, but that reading is a guess made by people already living with the myth. What is documented: she was also called simply Kore, 'the maiden'.
Περσεφόνη (Persephónē) → Proserpina (Latin) → Persephone (English)
How it traveled
The name belongs first to Greek myth, where Persephone is the daughter of Demeter, carried off to the underworld and returned for part of each year — the story the Homeric Hymn to Demeter tells at length, and the story ancient Greeks read as an account of why the growing season comes and goes. Her cult at Eleusis kept the name in ritual use for centuries.
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
Penny
PEN-ee
Stress on the first syllable. It survives accents and phone calls intact, and English speakers spell it correctly on the first hearing.
- Pen — The one further shortening in real use; informal, mostly within families.
- Penelope — Not a nickname but the long form behind it — some parents register Penelope and use Penny daily, others register Penny alone.
- Pennie — An alternate spelling that has been recorded as a given name in its own right.
Persephone
per-SEF-uh-nee
Four syllables, stress on the second, and the last syllable rhymes with 'knee' — not 'phone'. Anyone who has met Penelope or Antigone will land on it without help; some people need to be told once.
- Persie — The most common everyday short form among English-speaking families; informal only.
- Seph — Clipped from the middle of the name; used informally and works across ages.
- Sephy — Softer version of Seph, more often heard with small children.
- Percy — Borrowed from the first syllables; also stands alone as a traditional boys' name in English, so it reads as unisex.
- Also Effie.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Penny if you want…
- a name holding steadyPenny is holding its place on the charts
- a name with fewer syllablesPenny is 2 syllables to Persephone's 3
Choose Persephone if you want…
- a name on the way upup 84 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itPersephone runs 3 syllables, Penny 2
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Persie, Seph and Sephy
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
Penny
Strengths
- Everyone can already spell it — it is the same string of letters as the coin, learned in childhood.
- Works either way: as a full legal name or as the everyday form of Penelope, which keeps a formal option open.
- On American records continuously since the nineteenth century, so it reads as familiar rather than newly minted anywhere in the country.
To consider
- It is a common noun as well as a name, so the coin phrases come with it: penny for your thoughts, a pretty penny, penny-pinching. Most bearers hear them early and stop noticing.
- It is still strongly represented among older generations, which means many people will have known a grown-up Penny before they meet a small one.
- People often assume it is short for something and ask for the full name. If you register Penny alone, expect to say so more than once.
Persephone
Strengths
- A written record stretching back to archaic Greece, with the spelling essentially unchanged.
- Several real short forms already in use — Persie, Seph, Sephy — so there is an everyday option built in.
- Follows the familiar Greek four-syllable stress pattern of Penelope, so most readers guess it correctly.
To consider
- The myth is not a gentle one — abduction, the underworld, a bargain about the dead. Most people think first of spring returning, but some will think of the darker half, and it comes up often enough that it is worth being ready for.
- Expect a share of people saying 'per-se-PHONE' on first sight, and a lifetime of gentle corrections. The name is long for forms, name tags and school worksheets.
- Its use is heavily concentrated among very young children right now, so it reads as a contemporary choice rather than a family-heirloom one, despite its age.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
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 Penny and Persephone 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 Penny and Persephone?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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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.
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- all guides
Where Penny and Persephone each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Penny or Persephone — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Penny or Persephone?
- Persephone, in 2025: Persephone ranked #734 with 372 babies; Penny ranked #740 with 368 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Penny or Persephone?
- Persephone. Over the last five years Penny moved down 15 places; Persephone moved up 84 places.
- Which is the older name, Penny or Persephone?
- Penny entered the US charts in 1882; Persephone entered the US charts in 1962. On the American record, Penny is the older name.
- How many people are named Penny and Persephone?
- About 85,500 people named Penny are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 4,900 people named Persephone are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Pennys or Persephones in the classroom?
- Penny will almost certainly be the only one in school. Persephone will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Penny, Persephone and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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