Percy
About Percy
Percy is an adorable old name that is finally shedding its pampered Little Lord Fauntleroy 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; Percy Ignatius Weasley is a Harry Potter character and Perseus "Percy" Jackson is the protagonist of the Heroes of Olympus series.
Pronounced PER-see.
As of October 2026, Percy ranked #1279 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #98 in 1897, Nameberry popularity #206.
Editor: Pamela Redmond
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #2,037 | 70 | 36.4 |
| 2015 | #2,291 | 58 | 30.3 |
| 2016 | #2,652 | 47 | 24.8 |
| 2017 | #1,969 | 73 | 39.4 |
| 2018 | #2,205 | 63 | 34.7 |
| 2019 | #2,793 | 45 | 25.1 |
| 2020 | #2,058 | 69 | 40 |
| 2021 | #1,812 | 87 | 49.7 |
| 2022 | #1,583 | 112 | 64.1 |
| 2023 | #1,562 | 112 | 65.5 |
| 2024 | #1,257 | 157 | 91.1 |
| 2025 | #1,279 | 154 | 90.2 |
World rankings
Similar names
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Percy on lists
Famous Percys
- Percy Tyrone Sledge
American R&B singer
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
English poet
- William Percival "Percy" Harvin
American football player
- Percy Lavon Julian
American chemist and inventor
- Percy Lebaron Spencer
American inventor
- Percy Aldridge Grainger
Australian composer
- Percy Faith
Canadian bandleader
- Percy Heath
American jazz bassist
- Percy Walker Nelles
Canadian naval chief
- Percy Mayfield
American songwriter
- Percy Romeo Miller Jr.
aka Romeo, American rapper
- Percy Williams Bridgman
American physicist; winner of the Nobel Prize
- (Arthur) Percy Frank Chapman
English cricketer
- Percy George Herbert Fender
English cricketer
- Percy Lee Snow
American NFL football player
- Percy
Robert Plant's nickname in English band Led Zeppelin
Percy in pop culture
- Perseus "Percy" Jackson
main character in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and The Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus
- Percival Ignatius "Percy" Weasley
character in the Harry Potter series
- Percy Blakeney
character in "The Scarlet Pimpernel"
- Percy Wetmore
character in Stephen King's "The Green Mile"
- Percy Grimm
murderer of Joe Christmas, acting in the name of patriotism, in Faulkner's "Light in August" (1932)
- Percy
engine in animated series "Thomas and Friends"
- Percy
character in the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
- Percy
baby owl in "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell
- Percy Pig
brand of gummy candy
- Percy the Park Keeper
book and TV series by Nick Butterworth
- "Percy's Song
" song by Bob Dylan
- Percy Becker
character in movie "No Hard Feelings"
- "Percy Folio"
17th century Broadside Ballad