Pearse
A masculine Irish name meaning "bright" or "radiant".
Name Census estimates that about 201 living Americans carry the first name Pearse. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Pearse today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Pearse births was 1999 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Pearse. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
201
~ 1 in 1,705,245 Americans
Peak year
1999
14 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,891
Tracked since 1988
Popularity
Pearse: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Pearse from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 68 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Pearse by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Pearse during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Pearses live
Origin
Meaning and history of Pearse
The name Pearse is derived from the Old English word "perse" or "pers," which means "Persian" or "someone from Persia." The name likely originated as a nickname or surname for someone who had connections to Persia or had traveled there. It can be traced back to the early medieval period in England, around the 11th or 12th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Pearse is found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, including "Perse" and "Pers."
During the Middle Ages, the name Pearse was relatively uncommon but can be found in historical records across different regions of England. One notable bearer of the name was Pearse Plowman, an English poet from the late 14th century who wrote the allegorical work "The Vision of Piers Plowman."
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with Sir Henry Pearse (c. 1547-1616), an English soldier and explorer who served under Sir Walter Raleigh and was one of the early settlers of Virginia in the New World.
Another famous bearer of the name was Patrick Pearse (1879-1916), an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, and one of the leading figures in the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland in 1916. He was executed for his role in the uprising and is considered a key figure in the Irish republican movement.
In more recent history, Pearse Doherty (born 1981) is an Irish politician who has served as the leader of Sinn Féin in the Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) since 2018.
While the name Pearse has its origins in Old English and a connection to Persia, it has become particularly associated with Irish history and culture due to the significance of figures like Patrick Pearse and its adoption as a common given name in Ireland.
People
Pearse + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Pearse as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Pearse: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Pearse?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 201 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Pearse going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,705,245 US residents.
Is Pearse a common name?
We classify Pearse as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 204 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Pearse most popular?
The single biggest year for Pearse was 1999, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Pearse is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Pearse a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Pearse in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.