Pete

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Peter in KR South Korea.

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 20 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◐

Pete is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name70K records spelled Pete8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Pętê, Petê, Peté, Péte

• a separate given name18K records spelled Pete4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada

  Also written Pête, Pété, Peté

• Thai given name2.3K records spelled Pete3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Thailand, United Kingdom, Canada

  Languages: Thai, Lao

  Also written Peté

• Indonesian given name1.9K records spelled Pete3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, United Kingdom, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Peté

68 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●

Pete is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Spanish, blowjob

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• stone.

  as a name·African Names

• In Akan, w, v. ^0 bruise, quash, squash, crush, grind, pound, to dash in pieces; to be bruised, crushed &c. cf. fetew, potow. apeti, 5. apiti

  as a word·Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi)

• In French, PETE (“polyethylene terephthalate”) abbreviation of polyéthylène téréphtalate

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In pi, inflection of peta (“ghost”):

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Charles Conradb. 1930USnot in their usual nameAmerican astronaut and lunar explorer (1930–1999)
• Pete Roseb. 1941USAmerican baseball player (1941–2024)
• Pete Postlethwaiteb. 1946GBEnglish character actor (1946–2011)
• Pete Maravichb. 1947USAmerican basketball player (born 1947)
• Pete Sessionsb. 1955USAmerican politician
• Pete Rickettsb. 1964USUnited States Senator from Nebraska since 2023
• Pete Docterb. 1968USAmerican animator and film director
• Pete Samprasb. 1971USAmerican tennis player (born 1971)
• Pete Hegsethb. 1980USUnited States Secretary of Defense
• Pete Buttigiegb. 1982USAmerican politician (born 1982)

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 · 458 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Pete?

We estimate roughly 819 thousand people bear Pete (counting its spellings and scripts) across 15 countries in our records.

In which country does Pete have the most bearers?

We estimate about 464 thousand people bear Pete in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled pete.

Where is Pete most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Pete is densest in Hungary — about 1 in 72 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Pete compared with other names?

In the United States, Pete is the 669th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Pete a male or female name?

Pete 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 Pete mean?

Recorded meaning: Kiswahili: "a ring"; also an English male name from Greek meaning "stone".