How Many People Are Named Penny?
An estimated 76,287 people in the United States have the first name Penny. It is almost exclusively a female name. The average bearer is 59 years old, and Penny peaked in popularity in 1963 with 5,141 births that year.
Below you will find a full statistical profile of Penny as a first name in the United States, including gender data, a year-by-year popularity timeline going back to 1880, a decade breakdown, and state-by-state birth registrations. You can also check how many people share the full name Penny paired with any surname.
Key Insights
- While Penny is overwhelmingly female, 384 male births have been registered with this name since 1880.
Estimated Living Americans
76,287
About 1 in 4,493 people in the U.S.
Rarity
Uncommon
Predicted Gender
Female
99.6% confidence
Average Age
59
years old
Peak Year
1963
5,141 births
Total Registered
100,631
since 1880
Gender Distribution for Penny
Penny is almost exclusively a female name. Out of 100,631 total births registered, 99.6% were female.
Penny as a male name
Ranked #4,506 in 1974
7 male births in 1974
Peak: 1962 (26 births)
Penny as a female name
Ranked #747 in 2024
376 female births in 2024
Peak: 1963 (5,127 births)
Penny: Popularity Over Time
SSA records for Penny span from the 1880s to the 2020s, covering 15 decades of naming data. The most popular decade for this name was the 1960s, when 38,351 babies were registered. Penny has declined significantly from its peak in the 1960s. Recent registrations are a fraction of what they were at the name's height.
Penny by Decade
How has Penny tracked across different eras? The table below groups all SSA birth registrations into 10-year periods, with separate male and female counts. The colored bar shows each decade's share relative to the peak.
| Decade | Total | Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 11 | 0 | 11 | |
| 1890s | 29 | 0 | 29 | |
| 1900s | 50 | 0 | 50 | |
| 1910s | 162 | 16 | 146 | |
| 1920s | 477 | 10 | 467 | |
| 1930s | 1,151 | 23 | 1,128 | |
| 1940s | 13,177 | 64 | 13,113 | |
| 1950s | 25,211 | 87 | 25,124 | |
| 1960s | 38,351 | 132 | 38,219 | |
| 1970s | 12,630 | 52 | 12,578 | |
| 1980s | 2,952 | 0 | 2,952 | |
| 1990s | 782 | 0 | 782 | |
| 2000s | 623 | 0 | 623 | |
| 2010s | 3,023 | 0 | 3,023 | |
| 2020s | 2,002 | 0 | 2,002 | |
Penny by State
Birth registrations for Penny span all 51 states and territories in the SSA database. The highest counts are in California, Ohio, Illinois. The lowest are in Alaska, Rhode Island, Nevada. On average, about 1,891 Pennys were registered per state.
Penny + Last Name Combinations
How many people share a full name with Penny as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Names Similar to Penny
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
Penny: Questions and Answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Penny?
We estimate approximately 76,287 people named Penny are alive in the United States today. This is based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables. About 1 in 4,493 Americans share this first name.
Is Penny a common name?
Penny is classified as "Uncommon" and is more popular than 99.4% of all first names in the SSA database. A total of 100,631 births have been registered with this name since 1880.
When was Penny most popular?
Penny reached peak popularity in 1963, when 5,141 babies were given this name. The average age of a living person named Penny is approximately 59 years old, reflecting when the name was most commonly given.
Is Penny a female name?
Penny is predominantly female. 99.6% of people with this name are female. See the gender breakdown above for full details.
How many Penny Smiths are there?
To find how many people share a specific full name, we combine first name and surname frequencies. Try: Penny Smith, Penny Johnson, Penny Williams. You can also search any combination on our homepage.
Where does this data come from?
Our estimates use Social Security Administration birth records (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables broken down by sex. The U.S. population figure (342,754,338) is from the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate. Full methodology.
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