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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Percy with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Percy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,905 people with the first name Percy, which placed it at #2,334 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,334
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,905 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Percy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Percy is Black at 58.8%. The next largest groups are White (22.5%) and Hispanic (10.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Percy described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Percy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.8% · 6,407
- White22.5% · 2,451
- Hispanic or Latino10.7% · 1,167
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 390
- Two or more races2.9% · 319
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 171
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)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Percy leans strongly male. 10,568 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 345 female bearers (3.2%).
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.
How common was Percy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,905 people with the name Percy, or 3.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,334 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Percy in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Percy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Percy leans strongly male. 10,568 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 345 female bearers (3.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Percy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Percy is Black at 58.8%. The next largest groups are White (22.5%) and Hispanic (10.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Percy most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Percy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.8% (6,407 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Percy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Percy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Percy in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Percy can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people are called Percy?
You can see how many Americans are named Percy on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.