Pepper

Where Pepper comes from

Pepper hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1947
    First appearance
    #5,295 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1964
    Pepper Johnson born
    American football player and coach
  3. 1967
    Pepper Keenan born
    American guitarist and vocalist
  4. 1975
    Peak, #951
    132 babies named Pepper — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1978
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,669.
  6. 2005
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Pepper Keenan · American guitarist and vocalist, born 1967
  • Pepper Johnson · American football player and coach, born 1964
  • Pepper Binkley · American actress

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.