# Penn

> English word · Proper noun · frequency rank #8,328

## Definitions
1. A surname.
2. A place in England:
3. A place in England:
4. A place in England:
5. A place in the United States:
6. A place in the United States:
7. A place in the United States:
8. A place in the United States:
9. University of Pennsylvania

## Etymology
* 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.

## Easily confused with
- **per** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-per)
- **pet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pet)
- **pin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pin)
- **pun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pun)
- **pep** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pep)
- **pew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pew)
- **png** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-png)
- **pes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pes)
- **PNC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pnc)
- **pon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pon)
- **PnP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pnp)
- **plan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-plan)
- **pink** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pink)
- **porn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-porn)
- **punk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-punk)
- **Pete** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pete)
- **pine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pine)
- **pets** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pets)
- **pond** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-pond)
- **Peru** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/penn-vs-peru)

## Common misspellings (3)
`epnn`, `pnen`, `ppenn`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/penn