Peretz
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "breached" or "broken through".
Name Census estimates that about 138 living Americans carry the first name Peretz. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Peretz today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Peretz births was 2016 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Peretz. 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.
People living today
138
~ 1 in 2,483,727 Americans
Peak year
2016
16 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,138
Tracked since 1987
Census
Peretz in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 172 people with the first name Peretz, which placed it at #42,074 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
#42,074
National first-name rank
People counted
172
172 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Peretz
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Peretz is White at 94.8%. The next largest groups are Black (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%). 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 Peretz 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 Peretz at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.8% · 163
- Black or African American1.7% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 3
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 2
- Two or more races0.6% · 1
Popularity
Peretz: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Peretz from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 85 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Peretz remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Peretz 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 Peretz during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Peretz' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Peretz
The name Peretz is a Yiddish variation of the Hebrew name Perez, which originates from the Biblical Hebrew word "paratz," meaning "to break through" or "to breach." The name has its roots in ancient Jewish culture and is mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.
In the biblical narrative, Perez was one of the twin sons of Judah and Tamar. His name was given to him because he "broke through" the womb before his brother during childbirth. The story of Perez and his brother Zerah is recorded in Genesis 38:27-30.
The name Peretz gained popularity among Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. It was commonly used in Yiddish-speaking communities and became a popular name among Jewish families.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Peretz can be found in the works of the 12th-century Jewish philosopher and poet Judah Halevi, who mentioned a person named Peretz in his writings.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Peretz. These include:
1. Peretz Smolenskin (1842-1885), a Russian-Jewish writer, philosopher, and advocate for the revival of the Hebrew language.
2. Peretz Markish (1895-1952), a Soviet Yiddish poet and playwright known for his works depicting the struggles of the Jewish working class.
3. Peretz Opochensky (1892-1944), a Russian-Jewish painter and graphic artist known for his depictions of Jewish life and culture.
4. Peretz Bernstein (1890-1971), a Polish-born American lawyer and writer who served as the United States Minister to Yugoslavia from 1944 to 1947.
5. Peretz Hirshbein (1880-1948), a Yiddish novelist and playwright who wrote extensively about Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
The name Peretz has maintained its significance within Jewish communities, particularly among those of Eastern European descent. While its usage may have declined in recent times, it remains a cherished name with deep cultural and historical roots.
People
Peretz + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Peretz 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
Peretz: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Peretz?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 138 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Peretz 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 2,483,727 US residents.
Is Peretz a common name?
We classify Peretz as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 139 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Peretz most popular?
The single biggest year for Peretz was 2016, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Peretz is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Peretz in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 172 people with the name Peretz, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,074 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 Peretz 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 Peretz?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Peretz leans strongly male. 170 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 2 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Peretz?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Peretz is White at 94.8%. The next largest groups are Black (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%). 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 Peretz most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Peretz in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.8% (163 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 Peretz in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Peretz a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Peretz 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 Peretz still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Peretz 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 Peretz 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 common is the name Peretz?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.