Penney
Feminine · “from Penelope”
The -ey ending pulls this name away from the coin and toward a surname. Penny with a y is unmistakably the small change; Penney with an e reads as a family name, which is exactly what it is for the department store that carried it across America for a century.
How old is the name Penney?
Penney first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Penney alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 1,700 people named Penney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Penney most popular?
Penney peaked in 1962, reaching #1008 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Penelope to Penney
The story of Penney
The Greek name may be a duck. One long-standing derivation takes it from a word for a particular waterfowl — a wigeon or something like it — and points to a story in which the infant was thrown into the sea and carried back to shore by birds. The alternative, from the word for a weft thread, is tidier and fits the weaving that the character is famous for, which is exactly why it is suspicious: it looks like an explanation constructed backwards from the story. Neither can be established. A name everybody assumes means something about cloth may well mean something about a duck.
Meaningscholars disagree
from Penelope
The usual parent is a Greek name whose own meaning is not settled. A family may equally have reached the spelling from the English coin or from the surname, and the record does not distinguish.
How the name formed
- Penelope
- Penny
- Penney
Pronouncing Penney
PEN-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The -ey and the -y are said identically; the difference is entirely one of what the eye expects.
Nicknames for Penney
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
- 1925
- Most girls named
- 1962113 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1008reached in 1962
- Change vs 2017
- −44.4%5 in 2018, from 9
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.
Penneys among us
people named Penney 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
Penney 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
- The spelling separates the name from a common noun without changing the sound.
- It is short, warm and completely easy to say.
- It has a fuller and rather grand name standing behind it.
- Penny is far commoner and this spelling gets corrected constantly.
- A very large retailer carried the surname, which colors the reading.
- It is closely tied to the mid-century decades of its use.
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Penney
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Penneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Penney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Penney in 2025?
- Penney is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Penney with classmates?
- Penney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Patricia#1334 · Pamela#2239 · Phyllis#11932 · Peggy#8362 · Paula#853 · Pauline#2957 · Pearl#776 · Paige#346
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Penney? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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