Penn
#2,706 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Penn has been given to 1,230 babies in the U.S. since 1915. In 2025 it ranked #2,706 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2014, with 79 recorded.
Babies named Penn, 2025
1 in 69,100
Penn over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Penn?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 69,100
- 48 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 35,600
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #2,706
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 47,874 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Penn sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 47,874 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Penn. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Penns were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Penn was born before 2015 — so the typical Penn is around 10 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 44.6% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 82.9%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 1,138
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 44.6% of all recorded uses (539).
Is Penn rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- +283
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −733
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −363
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.86×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 60.8%
- Peak was 2014 (79)
- Years since peak
- 11
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 24.2% average annual change
Spellings of Penn
Penn is not the most common spelling — Sean is, with 23.5% against Penn's 0.07%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Penn is used
Across 1910–2025, Penn was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 296,900 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
- 2California1 in —
- 3Illinois1 in —
- 4North Carolina1 in —
- 5New Jersey1 in —
- 6Texas1 in —
- 7Utah1 in —
- 8Virginia1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Penn has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Penn around the world
Where Penn ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- England & Wales2010–2023#4,992in 2023
- South Australia2006–2006#657in 2006
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Penn by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Penn
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Penn
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.