Peni
Peni was last recorded in 1995, when 5 babies were given it; 149 Americans have been recorded with it between 1946 and 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Peni by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Peni mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Peni is “a male given name, spoken form of the pet name Ben”
/ˈpe.ni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Peni?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,394, in 1972; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 1958, the peak
Peni peaked in 1958, when 13 girls were given it, #3,502 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 8 | #6,394 | 5.3 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,728 | 3.4 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,862 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,557 | 3.0 |
| 1965 | 11 | #4,134 | 6.2 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,521 | 2.6 |
| 1963 | 12 | #3,968 | 6.2 |
| 1962 | 8 | #5,174 | 4.1 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,182 | 4.0 |
| 1960 | 12 | #3,863 | 5.9 |
Every recorded year (19)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | 11 | #3,974 | 5.4 |
| 1958 | 13 | #3,502 | 6.5 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,657 | 2.5 |
| 1953 | 7 | #4,911 | 3.7 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,204 | 2.7 |
| 1951 | 5 | #6,021 | 2.8 |
| 1948 | 6 | #5,115 | 3.5 |
| 1947 | 7 | #4,663 | 3.9 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,521 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Peni a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 149 Americans recorded as Peni, 97% are girls and 3% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Peni: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Peni, and how old are they?
An estimated 123 Americans named Peni and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (83% of everyone recorded); the median is 65 years old and half are between 61 and 68. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 325 people named Peni (171 women and girls, 154 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 131 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Peni rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 111,177 babies since 1880, Peni is the sixth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 409 babies recorded by SSA was a Peni (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Peni
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Peni and names like it
- Compare Peni and PennyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sPeni peaked in 1958.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Peni since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Peni: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1958The year the most babies were named Peni.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Peni alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with PMost given first.