Pepper

Popularity Trends

The name Pepper is the #4,740 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 3,319 recorded births since 1937. This represents the 38.7% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 38.7% of all names). For girls, it ranks #3,132 (45.2% percentile) for all time with 3,074 births since 1947. For boys, it ranks #4,341 (5.3% percentile) for all time with 245 births since 1937.

Pepper first appeared in U.S. birth records in 1937 (1937 for boys and 1947 for girls). Birth data for Pepper is available in 77 out of the 87 years between 1937 and 2023 (69 years for girls and 37 years for boys). The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

The name Pepper has been given almost exclusively to girls, with 92.6% of all recorded births being female. Interestingly, until around 1953, the name was more popular for boys (77.8% boys from 1937 to 1952), but since then it has been more commonly used for girls (93.6% girls from 1953 to 2023).

For girls, Pepper reached its peak popularity in 1975, achieving the 16.9% percentile (ranked #626) with 85 births per million. The name was most common in 2021, with 87 births per million (ranked 16.2% percentile). Since reaching a low point around 2020, the popularity of this name for girls has been increasing. Currently, Pepper ranks #824 for girls (13.0% percentile) with 73 births per million, which is 84.0% of its peak share of births.

For boys, Pepper reached its peak popularity in 1957, achieving the 1.2% percentile (ranked #650) with 6 births per million. The name was most common in 1957, with 6 births per million (ranked 1.2% percentile). Since reaching a high point around 2021, the popularity of this name for boys has been declining. Currently, Pepper ranks #911 for boys (0.0% percentile) with 3 births per million, which is 46.0% of its peak share of births.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Pepper".

1937 2023 19372023

Key Statistics

Total Births

3,074

Peak Births

161

Peak Year

1975

First Recorded

1947

Peak Percentile

16.9%

Current Percentile

13.0%

Peak Rank

#626

Current Rank

#824

Female statistics

Total Births

245

Peak Births

Peak Year

1957

First Recorded

1937

Peak Percentile

1.2%

Current Percentile

0.0%

Peak Rank

#650

Current Rank

#911

Male statistics

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Pepper", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Pepper.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Pepper's popularity from 1934 to 2023 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Pepper at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Pepper range from Luciana at 92.4% correlation to Eastyn at 87.5% correlation, with an average correlation level of 89.2%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Harmony with 33.9K births (100% girls) and the least popular is Hutch with 483 births (100% boys).

Pepper's share of births peaked at 91.3 births per million in 2021 (87.1 for girls in 1975 and 5.9 for boys in 1957). It reached its lowest point of 2.3 births per million (3% of peak) in 1959. In 2023, the most recent period with data, the name Pepper had 75.9 births per million, 83% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Luciana

14.4k

92.44% (very strong)

Hutch

483

90.58% (very strong)

Rosalynn

3,257

90.31% (very strong)

Kamilah

6,240

90.00% (very strong)

Dax

11.1k

89.80% (very strong)

Krisha

2,348

89.07% (very strong)

Radley

1,513

88.99% (very strong)

Lucianna

1,748

88.66% (very strong)

Aniylah

879

87.55% (very strong)

Scarlet

16.5k

87.52% (very strong)

Harmony

33.9k

87.52% (very strong)

Eastyn

1,709

87.51% (very strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Pepper

Our model found one way to pronounce the name Pepper. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 100.0% confident that Pepper is pronounced as PEH-per, which has 2 syllables.

PEH-per

100.0%

PEH-per (2 syllables)

Verified

100.0% confidence

P EH1 P ER0

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Pepper? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Pepper. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Pepper, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like P EH1 P ER0) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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