Perry

About Perry

Perry has more than one history. As a surname name it can come from an English word for a pear tree or from Welsh ap Herry, meaning son of Herry. It is also a familiar form of Peregrine. Singer Perry Como and the fictional lawyer Perry Mason give its two-syllable sound strong twentieth-century associations.

Different origins

The English surname could describe someone associated with a pear tree, from Middle English perrie and the earlier Old English word for the tree. This is a landscape or tree-name route, comparable to surnames that identify where a person lived.

The Welsh route comes from ap Herry, a phrase meaning son of Herry. The words merged into a surname with the same modern spelling as the English tree name. These two surname histories are independent even though they can produce an identical given name.

Perry can also shorten Peregrine, a Latin-derived name connected with a traveler or foreigner. That familiar-form use explains why some accounts attach the traveler meaning to Perry, but it does not replace the pear-tree and Welsh surname origins.

Perry Mason and courtroom stories

Perry Mason is the lawyer created by Erle Stanley Gardner. Raymond Burr played him in the television series that ran from 1957 to 1966. Working with secretary Della Street and investigator Paul Drake, Mason defended clients accused of murder.

The series combined detective work with courtroom revelations. Mason's legal strategy usually exposed the real culprit while clearing his client, creating a recognizable form of television mystery. Perry was the character's given name, making the show a particularly direct cultural association for the first name.

The screen connection places Perry within an era of American television when a title character's full name could become familiar in households week after week. Gardner's literary creation and Burr's performance reinforced one another in that public identity.

Perry Como and music

Perry Como won the male vocal performance award at the first Grammy Awards for Catch a Falling Star. The recording was also nominated for record of the year. These are distinct categories, and his win was for the vocal performance.

Como gives Perry a musical association alongside the courtroom character. His name belongs to the popular-song world of mid-century America, the same broad period in which Perry reached its largest annual American birth count.

Pronunciation and everyday form

Perry is pronounced PERR-ee, with stress on the first syllable. The double r does not create another syllable, and the final y has an ee sound. Peregrine is a longer name that can lead to Perry, while the surname-derived Perry can stand independently.

The name is used for both sexes, although its American record has generally been larger for boys. The same short sound works whether Perry is a full registered name or a familiar form within a family.

American popularity

Perry ranked #101 for United States boys in 1880. Its largest male birth count came in 1959, with 2,751 births, when it ranked #132. It fell to #678 in 2000 and was recorded for 135 boys in 2025. That year, 83 girls also received Perry, showing continuing use beyond its older masculine peak.

How popular is Perry?

In 2025, Perry ranked #1,373 among boys in the United States, with 135 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 2,751 in 1959. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.