Penn

• As an English surname, named after various places such as Penn in Buckinghamshire or Staffordshire, of Brythonic origin, from Proto-Brythonic *penn (“(hill) top, head”).
• Also as an English surname, from the noun pen (“enclosure”).
• Also as an English surname, spelling variant of Parnell.
• As a German surname, from Sorbian pien (“tree stump”), from Proto-Slavic *pьňь.

• Rhymes: -ɛn

Penn

1. A surname.
2. A place in England:
   1. A village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, previously in Chiltern district (OS grid ref SP9094). ^[1]
      • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 312:

        High on a ridge of the Chilterns stands the village from which a celebrated Buckinghamshire family took its name. It was the home of the ancestors, and some of the descendants, of William Penn, the Quaker who in 1682 founded Pennsylvania in America.

   2. A hamlet in Wootton Fitzpaine parish, west Dorset (OS grid ref SY3495). ^[2]
   3. A western suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands (OS grid ref SO8996). ^[3]
3. A place in the United States:
   1. An unincorporated community in Ramsey County, North Dakota.
   2. An unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon.
   3. A borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, named after William Penn.
   4. A number of townships in the United States, including in Illinois (2), Indiana (3), Iowa (4), Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio (2), and Pennsylvania (12), listed under Penn Township.
4. (informal) University of Pennsylvania

   Synonym: UPenn

   • 2025 April 21, Gail Collins, Bret Stephens, “Only 1,370 Days to Go”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Well, he [Donald J. Trump] did go to Penn. Whether he got in on merit is a whole other question.

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Penn is the 1,849^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 19,409 individuals. Penn is most common among White (50.56%) and Black (38.50%) individuals.

• Penn State

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Penn”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.