Peggy
Feminine · “pearl”
Peggy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 292,765 girls against 798 boys since 1880. See Peggy as a boy name
Peggy is a pet form that has done a century of work as a full name, and it ends in the letter that English uses to make anything affectionate. That ending came south from Scotland, and it is now so ordinary that nobody notices it is doing anything.
How old is the name Peggy?
Peggy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Peggy alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 180,000 people named Peggy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Peggy most popular?
Peggy peaked in 1937, reaching #31 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 8,331 places below that high. See the whole 1937 chart.
Where it comes from
From Margaret to Peggy
The story of Peggy
In the spring of nineteen forty, with the German army moving through France, an American woman in Paris set herself a rule: buy a picture a day. She bought Brancusi, Léger, Ernst, Giacometti, Dalí, Mondrian, often at prices the artists could not refuse because they needed to leave. She got the collection out of the country, got herself out, and eventually put it in a low white palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, where it remains one of the best collections of modern art anywhere. Peggy Guggenheim also gave Jackson Pollock his first show. She was not a scholar and never pretended to be; she simply bought what she liked, quickly, at exactly the moment when buying it mattered.
Meaning
pearl
Peggy follows Margaret, and the Greek word behind Margaret is a pearl. The reading is settled; what is odd is the road from Margaret to Peggy, which runs through Meg and then swaps the opening consonant, a habit English used freely for a few centuries and then abandoned.
How the name formed
- Margaret
- Meg
- Peg
- Peggy
Pronouncing Peggy
PEG-ee
Two syllables with the stress in front. Nobody has ever needed it explained.
Nicknames for Peggy
Limited
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19499,118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #31reached in 1937
- Change vs 2022
- −20.0%12 in 2025, from 15
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Peggy in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Peggys among us
people named Peggy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Peggy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Pauline test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Peggy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pauline climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pauline's path sketches the road Peggy is walking now.
Peggy 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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Peggy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Peggy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is warm and instantly understood, which very few names manage on a first hearing.
- Peg is available as a short form and has been in use for centuries.
- The meaning is settled, short and easy to hand a child: a pearl.
- It reads as a nickname to some people, so formal settings will keep asking what it is short for.
- In America it belongs to an older generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
- This spelling goes overwhelmingly to girls but is recorded for boys as well, so the occasional form will guess wrong.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Peggy to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Peggy? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Peggy
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Peggys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 180,000 people named Peggy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Peggy in 2025?
- Peggy ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Peggy?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Peggy — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Peggy with classmates?
- Peggy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Peggy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Clementina#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Peggy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Peggy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle