Pete

Where Pete comes from

The dictionaries list Pete as a given name — a diminutive of the male given name Peter — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #234 among boys — 50 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1908
    Peak, #173
    131 babies named Pete — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1971
    Pete Sampras born
    American tennis player
  4. 1982
    Pete Buttigieg born
    American politician
  5. 2010
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #2,069.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the male given name Peter.
Namesakes
  • Pete Sampras · American tennis player, born 1971
  • Pete Buttigieg · American politician, born 1982
  • Pete Conrad · American astronaut and lunar explorer, 1930–1999
  • Pete Hegseth · United States Secretary of Defense, born 1980
  • Pete Postlethwaite · English character actor, 1946–2011

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.