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Girl · Greek
Penelope
Say it: puh-NEL-uh-pee
Meaning
Uncertain. Ancient and modern scholars connect it with pēnelops, a kind of duck, or with pēnē 'thread on a bobbin, weft', but neither is settled.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Taken from Homer's Odyssey, it was used in England from the 16th century and has risen sharply in English-speaking countries since the 2000s.
Its wave through time
A revival, back after decades away
In the United States
- 78,540 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 2019, about 1 in 249 girls
- 6,104 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Penelopy
| Greek | Pinelopi |
|---|---|
| Italian | Penelope |
| Spanish | Penélope |
| Greek | Pēnelopē |
Famous bearers
- Penelope, faithful wife of Odysseus in the Odyssey
- Penélope Cruz, Spanish actress
- Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, the 'Stella' of Sidney's sonnets
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Ancient Greek literature and history (Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch and others)
- Parish baptism registers
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.