Penn
Masculine · “hill”
Penn is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,208 boys against 22 girls since 1880.
Penn is a hill in Celtic — pen — and Pennsylvania is named for a Quaker whose surname means exactly that.
How old is the name Penn?
Penn first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Penn is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,100 people named Penn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Penn most popular?
Penn peaked in 2014, reaching #1857 nationally. Today it ranks #2676, 819 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From pen to Penn
The story of Penn
Pen means a head or a hill in Welsh and Cornish and survives across English place names — Pendle Hill is really hill-hill-hill, having gathered a new word for hill in each successive language. Pennsylvania is Penn's woods, named for William Penn's father. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
hill, head
From the Brittonic pen, 'head' or 'hill', which survives in Welsh and Cornish and in English place names like Penn and Pendle. The same word gives Penzance and Penrith. William Penn's surname descends from it. The Celtic is documented.
How the name formed
- pen
- Penn
Related forms: Pen · Penn
Pronouncing Penn
PEN
One syllable. It is a homophone of the ordinary English noun.
Nicknames for Penn
Moderate
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 202073 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1857reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +14.3%48 in 2025, from 42
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.
Penn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Pen in Welsh — related form
- Penn in Cornish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, California, Texas.
Penns among us
people named Penn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 35,585 born in 2025 was named Penn
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 Micha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Penn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Micha climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Micha's path sketches the road Penn is walking now.
Penn 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
Where Penn is headed
Penn should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Penn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Penn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That Pendle Hill means hill-hill-hill in three languages is a first-rate fact.
- Pennsylvania is named for a bearer of the surname.
- One syllable, clean, and never mispronounced.
- It is a homophone of an ordinary English noun.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- It is very short and can be swallowed by a long surname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Penn to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Penn
Masculine · #2676 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Penns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Penn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Penn in 2025?
- Penn ranks #2676 among US boy names in 2025, with 48 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Penn?
- About 1 in every 35,585 US boys born in 2025 was named Penn — 48 in all.
- Will my child share the name Penn with classmates?
- Penn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Penn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Isaak#2676 · Hershel#2676 · Mikhael#2676 · Kylon#2676 · Pryce#2676 · Davin#2676 · Juancarlos#2676 · Zyion#2676
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Penn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Penn 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
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