Peter
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: From the male personal name Peter, from Greek Petros, literally ‘rock’, translating Aramaic kefa ‘rock’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/pitɚ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Peter is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 6th most common given name.
- HUHungary1 in 72(measured from records)
- SESweden1 in 90
- DEGermany≈1 in 94
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- #109 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 662 (measured from records)
- 1 in 72 (inferred from the name graph)
≈850,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Hungary
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
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)
From the male personal name Peter, from Greek Petros, literally ‘rock’, translating Aramaic kefa ‘rock’.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
How Peter is read(measured from records)
Peter 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.
- English67%
From the male personal name Peter, from Greek Petros, literally ‘rock’, translating Aramaic kefa ‘rock’.
as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
From Cephas/Petros, 'rock'; New Testament apostle, St Peter. Irish Peadar; once often replaced by Piers/Pierce in Ireland.
as a nameIrish first names
from Latin Petrus, from Greek petros 'rock'; first attested Petrus 1086 DB, Hy 2 Gilb (L)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
- German13%
from Greek Petros 'rock'; source of several stock compounds
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
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)
Peter 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #6 | ≈850,000 est. | ≈1 in 94 | listed | Peter | 350 |
| NG Nigeria | #22 | ≈760,000 est. | ≈1 in 281 | — | Peter | 171 |
| US United States | #77 | 464,396 | 1 in 716 | 464K | Peter | 662 |
| GB United Kingdom | #20 | ≈350,000 est. | ≈1 in 190 | 7 | Peter | 465 |
| AU Australia | #9 | ≈170,000 est. | ≈1 in 146 | 4 | Peter | 391 |
| HU Hungary | #4 | 135,685 | 1 in 72 | 136K | Peter | 237 |
| SE Sweden | #18 | 112,872 | 1 in 90 | 113K | Peter | 196 |
| AT Austria | #8 | ≈64,000 est. | ≈1 in 139 | 9.6K | Peter | 218 |
| DK Denmark | #2 | 45,777 | 1 in 128 | 46K | Peter | 253 |
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; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Nyilvántartó — Top-100 given names in population (2020–2025); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024). 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)
Peter 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.
Peter's original name was Simon (in Hebrew, Shim'on), a common Jewish name. Jesus gave him the Aramaic name 'Cephas' (Kepha), which translates to 'rock' or 'stone'. The Greek equivalent is 'Petros', from which the English name 'Peter' is derived. This name was not used as a proper name before him and signifies a tough or foundational character.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
A classic and strong name, Peter means 'rock,' symbolizing stability, leadership, and faithfulness. It belonged to the Apostle Peter, a devoted and central figure in Christianity, making it a name with deep historical and spiritual significance.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
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)
- Peter Sellersb. 1925GBBritish actor and comedian (1925–1980)
- Peter O'Tooleb. 1932GBBritish-Irish actor (1932–2013)
- Peter Bogdanovichb. 1939USAmerican film director (1939–2022)
- Peter Diamondb. 1940USNobel prize in economics winner
- Jan Peter Balkenendeb. 1956NLPrime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010
- Peter Pellegrinib. 1975SKPresident of Slovakia
- Peter Crouchb. 1981GBEnglish association football player (born 1981)
- Manuel Neuerb. 1986DEnot in their usual nameGerman association football player
- Pete Davidsonb. 1993USnot in their usual nameAmerican comedian and actor (born 1993)
- Shawn Mendesb. 1998CAnot in their usual nameCanadian singer
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 174 sources across 89 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 464K | #99 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 113K | #20 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 62K | — |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 46K | #1 |
| AT Austria | Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024) | 2024 | 9.6K | #128 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 2K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 489 | #99 |
Reference works 8
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
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
- What does the name Peter mean, and where does it come from?
- From the male personal name Peter, from Greek Petros, literally ‘rock’, translating Aramaic kefa ‘rock’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Peter?
- In the etymology graph, Pedro, Pierre and Petro are forms of the same name in other languages; Pete is a recorded short or pet form.
- Is Peter a male or female name?
- Peter is a male 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.
- In which country does Peter have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 853 thousand people named Peter in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled peter.
- Where is Peter most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Peter is densest in Hungary — about 1 in 72 people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Peter?
- In the United States, the national register counted 464,396 people named Peter in 2020, about 1 in 716 residents.
- How common is Peter compared with other names?
- In Germany, Peter is the 6th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Peter?
- A machine transcription gives /pitɚ/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Peter?
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/peterThe 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, “Peter” — the 6th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.