Perry
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Pear Tree
- Origin
- Anglo
About the Name Perry
Perry is an Anglo name with two intertwined sources: it began as an English place-name and surname meaning "pear tree" — given to someone who lived near one — and it also serves as a friendly short form of Peter, from the Greek for "rock." That double heritage gives it both a pastoral, nature-rooted charm and an easygoing, nickname-style warmth, a name that feels relaxed and approachable yet carries a quiet sense of history.
As a given name in its own right, Perry held a brief place on the American charts at the turn of the millennium. It first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 at its peak of #679 and remained through 2006, where it sat at #957 following ranks of #915 and #800 in the years just before — a short window typical of relaxed, mid-century-flavored names that find a modest following before stepping back from the rankings.
The name's two crisp syllables read as both vintage and breezy, the kind of unpretentious, retro-feeling choice that fits today's revival of laid-back, old-fashioned boy names. Its recorded variant is Parry, a closely related spelling that preserves the same warm, two-syllable sound while offering a slightly different look on the page. Friendly, grounded, and quietly stylish, Perry appeals to parents who want a name that feels effortless and familiar without being common.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Perry
US Popularity History (2000–2006)
Annual US births named Perry by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 263 boys named Perry (boy rank #679 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2006, ranked #957 for boys (195 US births). That's 278 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Perry Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Perry the strongest states are Wisconsin, South Carolina, Virginia.
Strongest boys-name states
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Perry in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Perry?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Perry to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Perry against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).