Peggy

According to Behindthename.com, Peggy is a pet form of Meg, which itself is a pet form of Margaret. That's a whole lot of petting. This information really only covers the origin of the name, however. In fact, Peggy has often been given as a first name in its own right, with no Megs or Margarets involved. For most of the 20th century Peggy was a top 500 name for baby girls in the United States, only dropping out of the top 1000 in the 1990's. Meg, on the other hand, has never enjoyed such popularity in the U.S. (which surprises me a little, but oh well.) Of course, Margaret is an old classic, and though not as popular as it once was, is still in frequent use--but that's another post. The meaning of Margaret is "pearl," so I suppose Peggy can be considered to mean "pearl" also, although personally I think the new official meaning of Peggy should be "teenager of the 1950's." Again, Peggy did drop out of the top 1000 in the early 1990's, mainly because Peggy was now a name borne by one's mother, or perhaps even grandmother. In other words, it was old-fashioned. Will it at some point come back into fashion? That is anyone's guess. Whatever it was that made parents fall in love with the name in the early 20th century may cause parents of the future to feel the same way.