Peggy

The name arose in medieval England as a rhyming pet form of Meggy, an abbreviation of Margaret. Fourteenth-century English speakers regularly swapped initial consonants to invent rhyming variants, turning Meg into Peg much like Will into Bill. By the late nineteenth century, American parents began registering the nickname directly as an independent legal first name.

The name reads today as an energetic presence from the late 1950s. A Peggy tends to be pictured labeling freezer bags with blue permanent marker and driving a sedan with spotless floor mats. With an estimated average age of 72, the name belongs largely to the Baby Boom, which accounts for 65 percent of all living bearers. Only twelve newborn girls received the name in 2025, leaving it almost entirely retired from playground rotation.