Pinkie
A diminutive form of the feminine name Penelope, derived from Greek words meaning "weaver".
Name Census estimates that about 660 living Americans carry the first name Pinkie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Pinkie today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pinkie births was 1920 (94 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pinkie. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Pinkie is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Pinkies were born before 1962.
People living today
660
~ 1 in 519,325 Americans
Peak year
1920
94 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1928 SSA rank
#4,042
Tracked since 1880
Census
Pinkie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 774 people with the first name Pinkie, which placed it at #14,994 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
#14,994
National first-name rank
People counted
774
774 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
81.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Pinkie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pinkie is Black at 81.7%. The next largest groups are White (10.7%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Pinkie 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 Pinkie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American81.7% · 632
- White10.7% · 83
- Two or more races3.1% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino1.2% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Pinkie
Out of the 3,892 babies given the name Pinkie since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Pinkie as a male name
- Ranked #4,042 in 1928
- 6 male births in 1928
- Peak: 1928 (6 births)
Pinkie as a female name
- Ranked #11,369 in 1992
- 7 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1920 (94 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Pinkie leans strongly female. 748 people counted with this name were female (97.0%), compared with 23 male bearers (3.0%).
Popularity
Pinkie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pinkie from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 718 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Pinkie 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 Pinkie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Pinkies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Pinkie, while Florida, Virginia, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 192 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Pinkie
The name Pinkie is an English diminutive form of the name Penelope, derived from the Greek name Penelopē. The name Penelopē is believed to be composed of the elements pēnē, meaning "thread" or "web," and lopós, meaning "dust" or "shred." The etymology suggests that the name may have originally referred to a woman who was skilled in weaving or spinning.
The earliest recorded use of the name Pinkie dates back to the late 19th century in England. It was likely a nickname or pet name used affectionately for girls named Penelope or Penelope's diminutive forms, such as Penny or Nell.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Pinkie was Pinkie Gordon Gilchrist (1878-1946), an American artist and illustrator known for her children's book illustrations. She was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Another notable Pinkie was Pinkie Lee (1907-1993), an American comedian, and actor. Born Pinkus Lewski in St. Paul, Minnesota, he was a popular vaudeville performer and appeared in several films and television shows throughout his career.
Pinkie Barnes (1920-2003) was an American jazz singer and actress who performed with several renowned musicians, including Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. She was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and began her career as a dancer before transitioning to singing.
Pinkie Parkins (1920-2013) was an English cricketer who played domestic cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club. He was born in Oldham, Lancashire, and played for the county team between 1938 and 1957.
Pinkie Huddleston (1928-2002) was an American baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds and the San Francisco Giants. He was born in Hollis, Oklahoma, and played in the MLB from 1949 to 1953.
While the name Pinkie is not as common as it once was, it remains a unique and endearing diminutive form of Penelope, with a rich history and connections to various notable individuals throughout the 20th century.
People
Pinkie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pinkie 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
Pinkie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pinkie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 660 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pinkie 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 519,325 US residents.
Is Pinkie a common name?
We classify Pinkie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,892 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pinkie most popular?
The single biggest year for Pinkie was 1920, when 94 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pinkie is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Pinkie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 774 people with the name Pinkie, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,994 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 Pinkie 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 Pinkie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Pinkie leans strongly female. 748 people counted with this name were female (97.0%), compared with 23 male bearers (3.0%). 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 Pinkie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Pinkie is Black at 81.7%. The next largest groups are White (10.7%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Pinkie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Pinkie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.7% (632 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 Pinkie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Pinkie a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Pinkie in the SSA data are female. 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 Pinkie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Pinkie 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 Pinkie 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 have Pinkie as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.