Diminutive of Margaret, from Greek 'margarites' meaning 'pearl.'
Peggy is a pet form of Margaret, which descends through Old French *Marguerite* from Latin *Margarita* and ultimately from Greek *margarites*, meaning pearl. The leap from Margaret to Peggy is one of English naming history's more charming puzzles: the medieval habit of rhyming nicknames transformed Meg into Peg, and the affectionate diminutive suffix turned Peg into Peggy. The same process gave us Polly from Mary and Hob from Robert.
The name flourished in the mid-twentieth century, carried by a constellation of luminous women: Peggy Lee, the jazz and pop singer whose smoky 1958 recording of "Fever" became a standard; Peggy Guggenheim, the art patron whose Venice palazzo brought abstract expressionism to Europe; and Peggy Ashcroft, the British stage actress whose career spanned six decades. In American popular culture, the fictional Peggy Olson of *Mad Men* gave the name a second life as a symbol of quiet, stubborn ambition navigating a world designed to underestimate it. After decades of decline, Peggy is now in the early stages of the cycle that reclaims grandmothers' names for granddaughters.
It has the zippy, monosyllabic energy that contemporary parents favor — a name that sounds friendly on a toddler and authoritative on an adult. Its pearl etymology gives it quiet elegance beneath the approachable surface.