Percy is an adorable old name that is finally shedding its prissy image in this new era of boys with soft yet traditionally male names like Jasper and Elijah. Originating as an aristocratic Norman name, Percy became fairly widespread in England--and to some extent in the US, as an offshoot of the fame of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Percy Bresnahan is a character in the Sinclair Lewis novel Main Street, and one of Thomas the Tank Engine's sidekicks is named Percy.