Pacey
A diminutive derived from the French name Pascal.
Name Census estimates that about 991 living Americans carry the first name Pacey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 69.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Pacey today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pacey births was 2001 (67 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pacey. 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 Pacey with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
991
~ 1 in 345,867 Americans
Peak year
2001
67 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,653
Tracked since 1998
Census
Pacey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 797 people with the first name Pacey, which placed it at #14,701 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
#14,701
National first-name rank
People counted
797
797 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Pacey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pacey is White at 86.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Pacey 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 Pacey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.3% · 688
- Two or more races5.3% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 32
- Black or African American1.6% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Pacey
Pacey is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,002 total registrations, 696 (69.5%) were male and 306 (30.5%) were female.
Pacey as a male name
- Ranked #4,653 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (52 births)
Pacey as a female name
- Ranked #9,378 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Pacey on both sides of the split. Of the 804 people counted with this name, 549 were male (68.3%) and 255 were female (31.7%).
Popularity
Pacey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pacey from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 455 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Pacey remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Pacey 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 Pacey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Paceys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Pacey
The name Pacey is believed to have originated from the Old English word "pæc," which means "bundle" or "pack." This suggests that the name may have been initially used as a descriptive nickname for someone who carried a pack or bundle, perhaps a traveler or merchant.
In its earliest recorded forms, the name was spelled "Pacy" or "Pacie," and it was primarily found in England and other parts of the British Isles during the Middle Ages. Some historical records indicate that the name was particularly prevalent in the counties of Gloucestershire and Dorset.
One of the earliest documented references to the name Pacey can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landholdings and taxpayers in England completed in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The entry "Willelmus Paci" is listed among the tenants in Gloucestershire.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Pacey. One of the earliest recorded was Sir John Pacey (c. 1300-1370), a English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War and was rewarded with lands in Gloucestershire for his service.
Another historically significant figure was Thomas Pacey (1511-1586), an English Protestant reformer and clergyman who served as the Dean of Chichester Cathedral during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 17th century, Richard Pacey (1622-1679) was a prominent English merchant and member of the East India Company, playing a role in the early establishment of British trade routes and settlements in India.
During the American Revolutionary War, John Pacey (1735-1810) was a loyalist from Pennsylvania who joined the British forces and later settled in Canada after the conflict.
In more recent history, Charles Pacey (1886-1968) was a British architect and urban planner who significantly influenced the design and development of several towns and cities in the United Kingdom during the early 20th century.
While the name Pacey has been more commonly used as a surname in modern times, its origins as a given name can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when it likely emerged as a descriptive nickname reflecting the occupations and lifestyles of its early bearers.
People
Pacey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pacey 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
Pacey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pacey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 991 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pacey 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 345,867 US residents.
Is Pacey a common name?
We classify Pacey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,002 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pacey most popular?
The single biggest year for Pacey was 2001, when 67 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pacey is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Pacey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 797 people with the name Pacey, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,701 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 Pacey 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 Pacey?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Pacey on both sides of the split. Of the 804 people counted with this name, 549 were male (68.3%) and 255 were female (31.7%). 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 Pacey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pacey is White at 86.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Pacey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Pacey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.3% (688 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 Pacey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Pacey a male name?
Yes, 69.5% of people registered as Pacey 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 Pacey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Pacey 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 Pacey 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 Americans are named Pacey?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.