How popular is the baby name Peggysue in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Peggysue.

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Popularity of the baby name Peggysue


Posts that mention the name Peggysue

Where did the baby name Pippa come from in 1957?

Actress Pippa Scott in the movie "The Searchers" (1956)
Pippa Scott in “The Searchers

The baby name Pippa was popularized recently by royal sister Pippa Middleton, but an even earlier pop culture Pippa put the name on the map initially:

  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 5 baby girls named Pippa [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted

That Pippa was young actress Philippa “Pippa” Scott.

Pippa Scott’s first film was the memorable Western The Searchers (1956), which starred John Wayne.

(The title of Buddy Holly’s first hit song, “That’ll Be The Day,” came from an expression that John Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards, used repeatedly in The Searchers. And his second hit song, “Peggy Sue,” boosted the compound name Peggysue into the data for the first time — just one year after Pippa’s debut.)

Pippa Scott went on to appear in dozens of TV shows and movies during the ’60s and ’70s, and the name’s continued usage during those decades reflects this.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Pippa? Would you use it?

Sources: Pippa Scott – IMDb, That’ll Be The Day by Buddy Holly – Songfacts, SSA

Image: Screenshot of The Searchers

Where did the baby name Peggysue come from in 1958?

Early rock and roll musician Buddy Holly (1936-1959)
Buddy Holly

In September of 1957, the classic rock and roll song “Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly came out.

“Peggy Sue” was on Billboard‘s “Top 100” chart for 22 weeks from late 1957 to early 1958, reaching as high as the #3 spot.

Right on cue, the compound name Peggysue debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1958:

  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: 6 baby girls named Peggysue
  • 1958: 7 baby girls named Peggysue [debut]
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: unlisted

The name Peggy by itself also saw a significant increase in usage that year:

  • 1960: 6,434 baby girls named Peggy [rank: 69th]
  • 1959: 7,408 baby girls named Peggy [rank: 57th]
  • 1958: 10,072 baby girls named Peggy [rank: 42nd] (peak)
  • 1957: 7,379 baby girls named Peggy [rank: 62nd]
  • 1956: 7,487 baby girls named Peggy [rank: 63rd]

No doubt many of these Peggys had the middle name Sue.

So how did Buddy Holly chose the name “Peggy Sue” for the song? He didn’t — he wrote a song called “Cindy Lou,” taking the names from his newborn baby niece, Cindy Carol, and Cindy’s mom (Buddy’s sister) Patricia Lou.

But the original song wasn’t working out, so the band experimented with it in the summer of ’57. One of the changes they made was to the name. The rhythmically identical “Peggy Sue” was suggested by drummer Jerry Allison, who was dating a girl named Peggy Sue at the time.

At the end of 1958, Buddy Holly started working on “Peggy Sue Got Married,” one of rock and roll’s first sequel songs. Sadly he didn’t finish the song before February 3, 1959 — the day that he, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa.

If you were having a baby girl, and you had to name her either Peggy Sue or Cindy Lou, which combination would you choose?

P.S. “Peggy Sue” was released just a few months after the doo-wop song “Deserie,” which we talked about a few days ago.

Sources:

Image: Buddy Holly (Brunswick Records publicity photo)

[Latest update: Aug. 2023]