Pepper
Feminine · “pepper”
Pepper is given to both — 3,306 girls and 245 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Pepper is the spice, and the word came from Sanskrit — pippali — traveling west along the same routes as the peppercorns themselves.
How old is the name Pepper?
Pepper first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Pepper is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,200 people named Pepper are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Pepper most popular?
Pepper peaked in 1975, reaching #951 nationally. Today it ranks #1902, 951 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Pepper appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From pippali to Pepper
The story of Pepper
Black pepper came from the Malabar coast and was valuable enough that Alaric demanded three thousand pounds of it as part of the ransom of Rome in 408. The word traveled with the trade. Pepper entered American given-name use in the 1960s among the word-names and appears in the registers in current use.
Meaning
pepper, the spice
From the Old English pipor, borrowed from the Latin piper, which took it from the Greek peperi and that from the Sanskrit pippali, 'long pepper'. The word traveled the whole length of the spice route. The etymology is documented at every stage.
How the name formed
- pippali
- peperi
- piper
- Pepper
Related forms: Piper · Pippali · Pfeffer
Pronouncing Pepper
PEP-ur
Two syllables, stress on the first. It is a homophone of the ordinary English noun.
Nicknames for Pepper
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
- 1947
- Most girls named
- 2014161 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #951reached in 1975
- Change vs 2024
- −19.7%102 in 2025, from 127
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.
Pepper in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Piper in English — related form
- Pippali in Sanskrit — related form
- Pfeffer in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Utah.
Peppers among us
people named Pepper are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,758 born in 2025 was named Pepper
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 Carlyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Pepper's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carlyn climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carlyn's path sketches the road Pepper is walking now.
Pepper 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 Pepper is headed
Pepper 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.
Pepper beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Pepper in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Sanskrit-to-English route is one of the great spice-trade etymologies.
- That Rome's ransom was partly paid in pepper is a first-rate fact.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is an ordinary English noun and reads as one.
- It is a common name for pets.
- A children's cartoon carries the Peppa spelling strongly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Pepper to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Pepper
Feminine · #1902 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Peppers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,200 people named Pepper are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Pepper in 2025?
- Pepper ranks #1902 among US girl names in 2025, with 102 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Pepper?
- About 1 in every 15,758 US girls born in 2025 was named Pepper — 102 in all.
- Will my child share the name Pepper with classmates?
- Pepper will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Pepper
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kinzley#1902 · Riverlynn#1902 · Zya#1902 · Halima#1902 · Kolbie#1902 · Meghan#1902 · Violett#1902 · Izzy#1902
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Pepper? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Pepper and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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