Peterson — #8399 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Peterson

The Social Security Administration has registered 810 babies named Peterson between 1950 and 2024, spanning 75 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Peterson currently holds the #8399 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1989, when 28 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Peterson performed strongest in the 1980s, accumulating 178 births during that ten-year window. Across the 8 decades of recorded activity, Peterson shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Florida, which accounts for 175 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by New York and California. In total, SSA state-level files list Peterson in 3 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Peterson in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 810 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.