Humanverse

Peggy vs Peggye

American parents have registered 293,563 Peggys since 1880, against 298 Peggyes. Peggy is still ahead, with 12 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Peggy against Peggye, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Peggy Peggye

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Peggy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1929, when Peggy had 3,796 and Peggye had 13.

Side by side

  Peggy Peggye
Total US births 293,563298
Most in one year 10,08521
Babies in 2025 12under 5
Estimated living today 172,000130
Median age today 7181
Peak year 19581942
Best rank 42nd girls1,860th girls
Rank in 2025 8,362ndunranked
First recorded 18801926
Girls / boys 292,765 / 798298 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Peggyes alive today are over 81; half the Peggys are over 71. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Peggy and Peggye.