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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: internationalIn Israel: hardly given today

PennyIn Hebrew: פני · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Penny (Hebrew: פני) is a girl's name of international origin. 1,731 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Its peak year was 1950, with 94 babies.

People in Israel
1,731
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
—
not in the list
Peak year
1950
94 babies
USA, 2025
368
rank #740

Writing and saying Penny

In Hebrew letters the name is פני, read right to left. Penny is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Penny by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Penny: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Penny in English-speaking countries

Penny in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States2025368#7401963 (5,129)
United Kingdom2025245#2162017 (373)
England and Wales2025201#2322016 (305)
Scotland202525#1642018 (43)
Northern Ireland202519#1112022 (32)
Ireland202530#1562022 (66)
Alberta20258#5522017 (18)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Penny has every year and the other spellings.

Questions about Penny

How do you write Penny in Hebrew?

Penny is written פני in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Penny?

1,731 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name פני: 1,722 women and 9 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Penny a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 99.5% of the people named פני are women.

Is Penny used outside Israel?

The name Penny appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 368 girls were given it in 2025 (#740), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 245 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.