Given name & surname
Pendleton
“settlement”
Pendleton is a masculine given name from Old English, meaning “settlement.”
Meaning & origin
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1915. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Pendleton through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 62
- 49 boys · 13 girls
- Most popular year
- 1924
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for girls is 6 in 2021. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for girls was 7 in 2015. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 168 as a first name in 2020; 15,691 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Pendleton’s family of names
In English usage, Pendleton as a surname has a related form in PENDELTON.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Pendleton
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Pendleton, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Crafton
“saffron”
>99% boys
Claxton
“hill, peak”
>99% boys
Wilton
“from the town on the river”
>99% boys
Worthington
“belonging to” · “enclosure; settlement, town”
>99% boys
Knowlton
“knoll, summit”
>99% boys
Eldon
“from the sacred hill”
>99% boys
Frampton
“enclosure; settlement, town”
>99% boys
Elworth
“enclosure”
>99% boys