Persephone

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Locally spelled Persefoni in CY Cyprus, AL Albania and Περσεφονη in GR Greece.

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)

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Persephone, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Kore
• Demeter
• Hades
• Ophelia
• Hestia
• Aphrodite
• Calliope
• Ariadne
• Seraphina
• Hera
• Eurydice
• Circe

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Persephone is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name3 spellings in the group

  Also written Perséphone, Persephonē

• Lao given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States

  Also written Persephónè

34 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Persephone is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A minor deity, the queen of the Underworld/Hades, and goddess of the seasons and vegetation. Originally named Kore/Core, she is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter; and the wife of Hades. Her Roman counterpart is Proserpina.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, Greek goddess of the Underworld

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In Portuguese, Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of Perséfone.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Latin, Persephone (Greek goddess)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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)

• Emma Persephone Brigstockeb. 1957GB(born 1957)
• Lucy Persephone Frances Simonb. 1984(born 1984)
• Persephone Swales-Dawsonb. 1997GBEnglish actor
• Persephone BorrowGBviral immunologist

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)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce Persephone?

A machine transcription gives /pəsɛfəni/ (IPA) for English.

What does the name Persephone mean, and where does it come from?

Greek myth name; possibly 'bringer of destruction' Recorded by Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular….

Is Persephone a male or female name?

Persephone 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.

How common is the name Persephone?

In the United States, the national register counted 2,473 people named Persephone in 2020, about 1 in 135 thousand residents.

In which country does Persephone have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 2.6 thousand people named Persephone in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled persephone.

Where is Persephone most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Persephone is densest in the United States — about 1 in 135 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.