Pekka

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Peg in US United States, GB United Kingdom, CA Canada and 8 more, Peka in CZ Czechia, PL Poland, UA Ukraine, Peck in TH Thailand and Pech in LA Laos.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Pekka is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Croatian given name382 records spelled Pekka17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Croatia, Latvia, United States

  Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian

  Also written Peka, Пекка, Пека, Pëkä

• Czech given name241 records spelled Pekka3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Czechia, Slovakia

  Languages: Czech, Slovak

  Also written Peķka

42 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Pekka is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Finnish: vernacular form of PETER (cf. PIETARI ).

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

SE SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) — 22 years between 1999–2020. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Pekka Halonenb. 1865FIFinnish painter (1865-1933)
• Paavo Johanssonb. 1895FInot in their usual nameFinnish athletics competitor (1895–1983)
• Pekka Niemib. 1909FIcross-country skier
• Pekka Sammallahtib. 1947FIFinnish linguist, professor emeritus
• Pekka Vasalab. 1948FIFinnish middle- and long distance runner
• Pave Maijanenb. 1950FInot in their usual nameFinnish singer (1950–2021)
• Pekka Haavistob. 1958FIFinnish politician and minister for foreign affairs
• Jari Kurrib. 1960FInot in their usual nameFinnish ice hockey player
• Pekka Kuusistob. 1976FIFinnish violinist, jazz musician and composer (born 1976)
• Jesse Joronenb. 1993FInot in their usual nameFinnish footballer (born 1993)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 45 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Pekka?

We estimate roughly 77 thousand people bear Pekka (counting its spellings and scripts) across 5 countries in our records.

In which country does Pekka have the most bearers?

We estimate about 74 thousand people bear Pekka in Finland, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled pekka.

Where is Pekka most common?

Pekka is densest in Finland, where the national register counts about 1 in 75 people carrying it.

How common is Pekka compared with other names?

In Finland, Pekka is the 19th most common given name of 51,554 given names recorded there.

Is Pekka a male or female name?

Pekka is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Pekka mean?

Recorded meaning: Pekka är en östfinsk form av ryskans Pedka ’lille Petrus’.