Peggy
183,679 people in America carry this name — ranked #302 of 923.
A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.
Say it PEH gee
2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part
Phonetic transcription
P EH1 G IY0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.
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People counted 183,679 2020 Census
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Rank #302 Common
What Peggy means and where it comes from
Greek in origin, reading literally as “pearl”.
Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.
How often Peggy has been given
293,470 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1958, with 10,083 of them.
Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s. It has been given less often of late.
Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.
What goes well after Peggy
Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.
- Peggy Mary
- Peggy Maria
- Peggy Jennifer
- Peggy Elizabeth
- Peggy Susan
- Peggy Barbara
- Peggy Karen
- Peggy Sarah
Better avoided
- Peggy Patricia — same opening
- Peggy Paula — same opening
- Peggy Phyllis — same opening
Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.
Going quiet
Peggy has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Baby Boomers.
Boys or girls: who is called Peggy?
As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.
The same name abroad
- Meg English
- May Scottish
- Mai Esth
- Mag English
- Rita Italian
- Reta Finn
- Mete German
- Kret Esth
- Grel Bav
- Gogo French
- Mysic Scottish
- Moggy English
- Mette Danish
- Metje Dutch
Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.
Who answers to it now
- White alone (non-Hispanic) — 86.9%
- Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 6.8%
- Hispanic or Latino origin — 2.1%
- Two or more races — 2.1%
- Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.4%
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.6%
Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.
Names about as common
The nearest entries above and below by number of people.
Names with the same rhythm as Peggy
Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.
- Michael 3,476,721
- David 2,813,017
- Robert 2,759,339
- William 2,240,114
- Mary 1,768,343
- Daniel 1,607,193
- Joseph 1,600,667
- Richard 1,575,998
- Thomas 1,506,606
- Matthew 1,315,151
Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.
Full names people carry
- Peggy Johnson ≈ 1,000 people
- Peggy Jones ≈ 800 people
- Peggy Garcia ≈ 600 people
- Peggy Miller ≈ 600 people
- Peggy Davis ≈ 600 people
- Peggy Wilson ≈ 400 people
- Peggy Anderson ≈ 400 people
- Peggy Thomas ≈ 400 people
The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.
The states where Peggy is most common
In South Dakota the name is given 3.0 times as often as it is across the country.
- South Dakota ×3.0
- West Virginia ×2.4
- North Dakota ×2.2
- Iowa ×2.1
- Nebraska ×2.1
Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.
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Where this page gets its numbers
- Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
- Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
- Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.
Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin