Peter and his brother Andrew were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee and were the first two disciples to follow Jesus. After Pentecost, Peter became the leader of the apostles and travelled through Palestine and Asia Minor where he worked multiple miracles and converted many followers.

Peter is a common masculine given name. It is derived directly from Greek Πέτρος, Petros (an invented, masculine form of Greek petra, the word for "rock" or "stone"), which itself was a translation of Aramaic Kefa ("stone, rock"), the new name Jesus gave to apostle Simon Bar-Jona. An Old English variant is Piers.

There is no biblical or historical evidence for the claims of the Roman Catholic church that Peter was the first pope. In fact there is no evidence that there even was a pope in the first century.