Peggy
Masculine · “pearl”
Peggy is given to girls far more often — 292,765 girls against 798 boys since 1880. See Peggy as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Peggy alive today was born around 1944, making them about 81 years old. About 400 people named Peggy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Peggy most popular?
Peggy peaked in 1936, reaching #1118 nationally. See the whole 1936 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1924
- Most boys named
- 193634 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1118reached in 1936
- Change vs 1976
- 0.0%5 in 1977, from 5
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.
Peggys among us
people named Peggy are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Peggy sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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.
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Peggy
Masculine
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 400 people named Peggy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Peggy in 2025?
- Peggy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Peggy with classmates?
- Peggy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Paul#262 · Patrick#235 · Peter#187 · Philip#527 · Phillip#651 · Parker#102 · Preston#299 · Pedro#455
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Peggy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Peggy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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