Penelope

Where Penelope comes from

From Ancient Greek Πηνελόπη (Pēnelópē), possibly from πηνέλοψ (pēnélops, “duck”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Penelope
  • Ancient Greek
  • 4 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #836 among girls — 5 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1916
    Penelope Fitzgerald born
    British writer and poet
  3. 1964
    Penelope Ann Miller born
    American actress
  4. 2022
    Peak, #21
    6,430 babies named Penelope — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2022
    The comeback
    Back to #21 after sinking to #2,658 in 1989.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Penelope Fitzgerald · British writer and poet, 1916–2000
  • Penelope Ann Miller · American actress, born 1964
  • Penelope Lively · British novelist, born 1933
  • Penelope Wilton · English actress, born 1946
  • Penelope Delta · Greek children's writer, 1874–1941

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.