Persephone
Persephone was given to 372 girls in 2025, #735 among girls’ names; 4,960 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,920 Americans named Persephone and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Persephone by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Persephone mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Persephone is “a female given name from Ancient Greek.”
From Ancient Greek Περσεφόνη (Persephónē).
/pɚˈsɛfəniː/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Persephone?
#735 among girls’ names, 2025
Persephone rose from #1,334 in 2015 to #735 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.10 to 0.23 per 1,000.
429 babies in 2022, the peak
Persephone peaked in 2022, when 429 girls were given it, #683 among girls’ names. The 372 births of 2025 are 87% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 372 | #735 | 0.23 |
| 2024 | 383 | #736 | 0.24 |
| 2023 | 377 | #748 | 0.23 |
| 2022 | 429 | #683 | 0.26 |
| 2021 | 367 | #775 | 0.22 |
| 2020 | 333 | #820 | 0.21 |
| 2019 | 287 | #926 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 236 | #1,078 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 226 | #1,119 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 196 | #1,250 | 0.11 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 178 | #1,334 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 203 | #1,203 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 171 | #1,368 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 143 | #1,547 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 136 | #1,596 | 0.08 |
| 2010 | 111 | #1,841 | 0.06 |
| 2009 | 87 | #2,265 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 59 | #2,986 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 64 | #2,847 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 59 | #2,933 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 47 | #3,304 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 43 | #3,475 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 45 | #3,274 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 19 | #6,062 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 22 | #5,322 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 20 | #5,633 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 22 | #4,985 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 25 | #4,463 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 19 | #5,354 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 11 | #7,970 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 16 | #5,877 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,262 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,931 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 14 | #6,486 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,746 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 14 | #6,058 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 6 | #11,340 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 9 | #7,810 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #10,266 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,996 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,493 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,925 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #7,211 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,223 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,701 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 10 | #6,263 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 7 | #8,169 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,912 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,949 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 14 | #4,382 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 9 | #5,917 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 13 | #4,469 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 10 | #5,413 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,699 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,335 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,789 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,893 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,662 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,862 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,384 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Persephone a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Persephone has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 60 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Persephone: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Persephone, and how old are they?
4,920 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,960 Americans ever recorded as Persephone. The median Persephone alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 2,473 people named Persephone (2,463 women and girls, 10 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,756 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 11 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 122 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 133 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 912 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,740 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Persephone born?
The states with the most babies named Persephone are Texas, California and New York, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 35 | #857 | 0.9× |
| California | 33 | #887 | 0.8× |
| New York | 24 | #698 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 19 | #858 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 17 | #426 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 16 | #670 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #680 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 14 | #707 | 0.8× |
| Arizona | 13 | #541 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 12 | #818 | 0.6× |
Where Persephone is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Persephone is most over-represented in Washington: since 1962 it was given 1.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Persephone with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 5,273 babies since 1880, Persephone is the most given (94% of them). In 2025 it was given to 372 of their 384 babies (97%), again the most given.
| Name | Since 1880 | Births 2025 | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persephone | 4,960 | 372 | 2022 |
| Persephanie | 195 | 7 | 2014 |
| Persephonie | 118 | 5 | 2013 |
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 Persephone
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 Persephone and names like it
- Compare Persephone and PersephanieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sPersephone peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Persephone since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Persephone: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Persephone.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Persephone alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.