Percy
Feminine · “French Perci”
Percy is given to boys far more often — 32,204 boys against 636 girls since 1880. See Percy as a boy name
English aristocratic surnames are a gazetteer of Normandy. Percy, Courtenay, Neville, Mortimer, Beaumont, Montgomery and Warenne are all villages in France, taken as names by the men who left them in 1066 and never given back.
How old is the name Percy?
Percy first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Percy alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 200 people named Percy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Percy most popular?
Percy peaked in 1886, reaching #993 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 8,464 places below that high. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Perci to Percy
The story of Percy
Norman lords were identified by where they held land, so a man from Percy in the Cotentin was Guillaume de Percy, and when the Conquest gave him English estates the name came with him and hardened into a surname. The result is that a large part of the English aristocratic name stock is a list of small Norman villages: Percy, Courtenay, Neville from Neuville, Mortimer from Mortemer, Beaumont, Bruce from Brix, Montgomery, Warenne, Ferrers, Lacy, Vernon, Sinclair from Saint-Clair. Most of the places are still there and most are unremarkable. The Percys became Earls of Northumberland, fought at Otterburn and Shrewsbury, and produced Harry Hotspur; the name went on to be borne by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose parents used it as a first name in the eighteenth-century fashion for family surnames.
Meaning
French Perci, a place name
Percy is from Perci or Percy, the name of villages in Normandy, itself probably from a Gallo-Roman personal name plus a suffix meaning the estate of. The family took the name after the Conquest and became Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland. The female entries in the American record are few and most likely represent family surnames. The female peak is 1886.
How the name formed
- Perci
- de Percy
- Percy
Related forms: Percy · Piercy
Pronouncing Percy
PUR-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. French says pehr-SEE with the stress at the end. The English pronunciation has been settled since the middle ages.
Nicknames for Percy
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 192618 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #993reached in 1886
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%10 in 2025, from 12
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.
Percy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Percy in French — same name
- Piercy in English — spelling variant
Percys among us
people named Percy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Percy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Percy 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
Percy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Percy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and five letters, easy to say.
- It is a genuine surname with a fully documented history.
- Perce works as a short form.
- It is read as a man's name almost everywhere.
- The 1886 peak places it deep in the nineteenth century.
- It carries a strong English aristocratic association.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Percy 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 Percy? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Percy
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Percys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Percy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Percy in 2025?
- Percy ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Percy?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Percy — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Percy with classmates?
- Percy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Percy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Percy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Percy 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