Penelope
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: Greek name of uncertain meaning; in Ireland used to anglicise Finola
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/pəˈnɛɫəpi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Penelope is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- AUAustralia≈1 in 3.9K(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 4.5K
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 4.9K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Penelope itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 408 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.9K (inferred from the name graph)
65,806 people, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Australia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Pinelopi in CY Cyprus.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Greek name of uncertain meaning; in Ireland used to anglicise Finola.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
How Penelope is read(measured from records)
Penelope is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English77%
Greek name of uncertain meaning; in Ireland used to anglicise Finola.
as a nameIrish first names
The faithful wife of Odysseus.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
faithful wife of Odysseus; pers.
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
- Spanish8.9%
del griego Pēnelopē; etimología incierta, tradicionalmente ligada a 'tela' por etimología popular.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Penelope counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 65,806 | 1 in 5.1K | 66K | Penelope | 408 |
| GB United Kingdom | #511 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.4K | 1.1K | Penelope | 216 |
| ZA South Africa | #547 | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.9K | — | Penelope | 74 |
| AU Australia | #518 | ≈6,500 est. | ≈1 in 3.9K | 443 | Penelope | 179 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈2,900 est. | ≈1 in 21K | 274 | Penelope | 62 |
| NZ New Zealand | #366 | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 4.5K | 73 | Penelope | 100 |
| CY Cyprus | — | 543as Πηνελοπη | 1 in 2.3K | 543 | Pinelopi | 23 |
65,806 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024); Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); CYSTAT — Name frequency (2011 Population Census). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Penelope is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Du grec, lié à Pénélopé, épouse d’Ulysse; symbole de fidélité conjugale.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In Swedish, Se Penny.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Julie Vlastob. 1903FRnot in their usual nameFrench tennis player (1903-1985)
- Penelope Fitzgeraldb. 1916GBBritish writer and poet (1916–2000)
- Penelope Livelyb. 1933GBBritish novelist (born 1933)
- Penelope Spheerisb. 1945USAmerican filmmaker
- Penelope Wiltonb. 1946GBEnglish actress
- Penelope Milfordb. 1948USAmerican actress
- Jane Seymourb. 1951GBnot in their usual nameBritish actress
- Penelope Ann Millerb. 1964USAmerican actress
- Penny Mordauntb. 1973GBnot in their usual nameBritish politician (born 1973)
- Penélope Cruzb. 1974ESSpanish actress (born 1974)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 81 sources across 44 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 66K | #763 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 6.2K | — |
| GB United Kingdom | ONS — Baby names England and Wales (2024) | 2024 | 1.1K | #36 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2023 | 443 | — |
| IT Italy | ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend) | 2024 | 274 | #106 |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 2025 | 153 | #41 |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 2025 | 153 | #41 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 2025 | 118 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2025 | 73 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 64 | #763 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 51 | #81 |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2017 | 30 | — |
Reference works 3
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Penelope a male or female name?
- Penelope is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Penelope mean, and where does it come from?
- Greek name of uncertain meaning; in Ireland used to anglicise Finola. Recorded by Irish first names.
- What are other forms of the name Penelope?
- In the etymology graph, Pinelopi is a form of the same name in other languages; Penny is a recorded short or pet form.
- How do you pronounce Penelope?
- A machine transcription gives /pəˈnɛɫəpi/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Penelope?
- In the United States, the national register counted 65,806 people named Penelope in 2020, about 1 in 5.1 thousand residents.
- How common is Penelope compared with other names?
- In New Zealand, Penelope is the 366th most common given name of 26,737 given names recorded there.
- In which country does Penelope have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 66 thousand people named Penelope, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled penelope.
What do you want to know about Penelope?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/penelopeThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Penelope” — the 366th most common given name in New Zealand. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.