Perry
A English masculine name derived from the Old French place name Perie.
Name Census estimates that about 51,186 living Americans carry the first name Perry. It is a predominantly male name (95.5% of registrations). The average person named Perry today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Perry births was 1959 (2,785 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Perry. 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 Perry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Perry is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,608 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
51K
~ 1 in 6,696 Americans
Peak year
1959
2,785 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,242
Tracked since 1880
Census
Perry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 46,766 people with the first name Perry, which placed it at #948 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
#948
National first-name rank
People counted
47K
46,766 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Perry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Perry is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.5%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Perry 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 Perry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.0% · 33,665
- Black or African American18.5% · 8,641
- Two or more races3.0% · 1,422
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 1,265
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 1,188
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 585
Gender
Gender distribution for Perry
Perry leans heavily male at 95.5% of total registrations, but 3,608 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Perry as a male name
- Ranked #1,242 in 2024
- 160 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (2,750 births)
Perry as a female name
- Ranked #1,915 in 2024
- 104 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (123 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Perry leans strongly male. 44,460 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 2,305 female bearers (4.9%).
Popularity
Perry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Perry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 17,364 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Perry 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 Perry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Perrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Perry, while Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,354 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Perry
The name Perry traces its origins to the Old English word "pær", meaning "pear tree". This suggests that the name may have initially been an occupational surname used to refer to someone who grew or sold pears. The spelling of the name evolved over time, with variations such as "Perie" and "Perrie" also being used.
In the Middle Ages, the name Perry was relatively common in England, particularly in regions known for pear cultivation, such as Kent and the West Midlands. It was also found in parts of Scotland and Ireland, likely introduced by English settlers or through trade and cultural exchange.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Perry can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which lists individuals with variations of the name, such as "Peri" and "Perie". This suggests that the name was already in use before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Perry. One of the earliest was Sir Thomas Perry (c. 1350-1418), an English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War and was awarded lands in Cambridgeshire for his service.
In the 16th century, George Perry (c. 1510-1590) was an English composer and organist who served in the Chapel Royal during the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
During the American Revolutionary War, Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819) was a naval officer who achieved fame for his victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. His famous quote, "We have met the enemy and they are ours," has become a part of American folklore.
In the realm of literature, Nora Perry (1832-1911) was an Irish-American novelist and poet who wrote under the pen name "Nora Acheson". Her works often explored themes of Irish identity and the immigrant experience.
More recently, Steve Perry (born 1949) is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Journey. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 for his contributions to music.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Perry
People
Perry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Perry 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
Perry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Perry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 51,186 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Perry 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 6,696 US residents.
Is Perry a common name?
We classify Perry as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 79,516 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Perry most popular?
The single biggest year for Perry was 1959, when 2,785 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Perry is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Perry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 46,766 people with the name Perry, or 15.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #948 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 Perry 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 Perry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Perry leans strongly male. 44,460 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 2,305 female bearers (4.9%). 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 Perry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Perry is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.5%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Perry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Perry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.0% (33,665 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 Perry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Perry a male name?
Yes, 95.5% of people registered as Perry 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 Perry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Perry 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 Perry 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 people share the name Perry?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.