Meanings
- A surname.
- A place in England:
- A village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, previously in Chiltern district (OS grid ref SP9094).
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.
1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 312 - A hamlet in Wootton Fitzpaine parish, west Dorset (OS grid ref SY3495).
- A western suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands (OS grid ref SO8996).
- A place in the United States:
- A borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, named after William Penn.
- 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.
- informalUniversity of Pennsylvania
Well, he [Donald J. Trump] did go to Penn. Whether he got in on merit is a whole other question.
2025 April 21, Gail Collins, Bret Stephens, “Only 1,370 Days to Go”, in The New York Times, →ISSNSynonyms: UPenn
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounUniversity of Pennsylvania
Origin
- Proto-Slavic*pьňь
- Proto-Brythonic*penn“(hill) top, head”
- EnglishPenn
* 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.
More words from Proto-Brythonic, Proto-Slavic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Penn
All rhymes →Cite this entry
Penn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Penn
“Penn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Penn. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Penn,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Penn.
Source: Penn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.