Pietro
Of Italian origin meaning "rock" or "stone".
Name Census estimates that about 1,920 living Americans carry the first name Pietro. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Pietro today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pietro births was 1974 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pietro. 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 Pietro with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 178,518 Americans
Peak year
1974
51 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,658
Tracked since 1909
Census
Pietro in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,173 people with the first name Pietro, which placed it at #5,427 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
#5,427
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,173 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Pietro
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pietro is White at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Pietro 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 Pietro at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.0% · 2,825
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 232
- Black or African American1.8% · 58
- Two or more races1.1% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 23
Popularity
Pietro: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pietro from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 377 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Pietro remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Pietro 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 Pietro during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Pietros live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Florida recorded the most babies named Pietro, while Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 108 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Pietro
Pietro is a masculine given name of Italian origin, derived from the Late Latin name Petrus, which in turn comes from the Greek name Petros, meaning "stone" or "rock". The name's roots can be traced back to ancient times, with references found in various religious texts and historical records.
The name Pietro gained popularity in Italy during the Middle Ages, particularly after the rise of Christianity and the veneration of Saint Peter, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. Saint Peter, whose original name was Simon, was given the name Petros by Jesus, signifying the "rock" upon which the Church would be built.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Pietro dates back to the late 4th century, when Pietro Crisologo, an Archbishop of Ravenna, was born around 380 AD. He was known for his eloquent sermons and was later canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Pietro. Among them is Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), an Italian author, playwright, and satirist, known for his bold and controversial writings, which often criticized the powerful figures of his time.
Another prominent figure was Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), an Italian scholar, poet, and cardinal, who played a significant role in the development of the Italian Renaissance literary language and style. His works, particularly his collection of poems, "Rime," were highly influential in his era.
In the realm of art, Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) was an Italian Baroque architect and painter, best known for his grand frescoes and the design of the Baroque church of Santi Luca e Martina in Rome.
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), an Italian composer, is remembered for his famous opera "Cavalleria Rusticana," which premiered in 1890 and brought him international acclaim at a young age.
Another notable figure was Pietro Badoglio (1871-1956), an Italian military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Italy during World War II and played a crucial role in the overthrow of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in 1943.
People
Pietro + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pietro 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
Pietro: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pietro?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,920 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pietro 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 178,518 US residents.
Is Pietro a common name?
We classify Pietro as "Rare". It ranks above 93.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,380 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pietro most popular?
The single biggest year for Pietro was 1974, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pietro is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Pietro in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,173 people with the name Pietro, or 1.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,427 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 Pietro 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 Pietro?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Pietro appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,165 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Pietro?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pietro is White at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Pietro most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Pietro in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.0% (2,825 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 Pietro in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Pietro a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Pietro 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 Pietro still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Pietro 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 Pietro 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 have the name Pietro?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Pietro, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.