Percy began as a Norman surname taken from the village of Perci in Normandy, so it means "from Perci", and it later doubled as a short form of Percival. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley bore it in the 19th century, and today it belongs to Percy Jackson, the demigod hero of Rick Riordan's novels and the Disney+ series that premiered in late 2023. Percy has climbed from number 2,794 in 2019 to a best rank of number 1,260 in 2024 and sits at number 1,279 in 2025.