Percy
From Latin meaning "one who pierces the valley".
Name Census estimates that about 12,399 living Americans carry the first name Percy. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Percy today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Percy births was 1921 (618 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Percy. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Although Percy is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 626 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 27,644 Americans
Peak year
1921
618 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,257
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Percy
Percy leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 626 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Percy as a male name
- Ranked #1,257 in 2024
- 157 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (603 births)
Percy as a female name
- Ranked #8,804 in 2024
- 12 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (20 births)
Popularity
Percy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Percy from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 5,583 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Percy by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Percy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Percys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama recorded the most babies named Percy, while New Mexico, Utah, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 563 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Percy
The given name Percy has its origins in the ancient French language. It is derived from the Old French name "Perceval" or "Percev(i)al", which was in turn derived from the Welsh name "Peredur" or "Peredyr". The name ultimately traces its roots back to the Brittonic Celtic words "per" meaning "bowl, vessel, cup" and "edr" meaning "handsome, outstanding".
The name Perceval first appeared in the 12th century medieval romance and Arthurian legend "Perceval, the Story of the Grail" by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes. In this tale, Perceval is a young Welshman who becomes one of the Knights of the Round Table and eventually achieves the Holy Grail. This literary work helped popularize the name across Europe during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Percy was William de Percy (c. 1030 – c. 1096), a Norman baron and one of the companions of William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The de Percy family went on to become a prominent noble house in England.
Another notable historical figure with the name Percy was Henry Percy (1364 – 1403), an English nobleman and military leader known as "Harry Hotspur". He was a prominent figure in the conflicts between King Henry IV and the rebellious nobles during the early years of the House of Lancaster.
Thomas Percy (1729 – 1811) was an English bishop, editor, and writer who helped revive interest in medieval English poetry and ballads through his anthology "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry".
In the field of literature, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) was one of the most renowned English Romantic poets, known for works such as "Ozymandias" and "Adonais".
Another prominent bearer of the name was Percy Spencer (1894 – 1970), an American engineer and inventor who, while working for the Raytheon Corporation, accidentally discovered the heating effects of microwave radiation, leading to the invention of the microwave oven.
People
Percy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Percy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Percy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Percy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,399 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Percy going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 27,644 US residents.
Is Percy a common name?
We classify Percy as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32,678 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Percy most popular?
The single biggest year for Percy was 1921, when 618 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Percy is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Percy a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Percy in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.