Peirce
One of Shakespearean origin meaning "rock" or "the maker of piercing wounds".
Name Census estimates that about 93 living Americans carry the first name Peirce. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Peirce today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Peirce births was 1999 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Peirce. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Peirce. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
93
~ 1 in 3,685,531 Americans
Peak year
1999
7 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2017 SSA rank
#13,745
Tracked since 1992
Census
Peirce in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 168 people with the first name Peirce, which placed it at #42,627 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#42,627
National first-name rank
People counted
168
168 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Peirce
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Peirce is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Hispanic (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Peirce described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Peirce at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.4% · 125
- Black or African American8.3% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 11
- Two or more races6.5% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 2
Popularity
Peirce: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Peirce from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 43 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Peirce remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Peirce 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 Peirce during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Peirce
The name Peirce is an English variant of the name Peter, which is derived from the Greek name Petros, meaning "rock" or "stone." The name Peter was adopted into Latin as Petrus and subsequently evolved into various forms across different languages and cultures.
The name Peirce first emerged in England during the Middle Ages as a variation of the more common spelling "Pierce." It is believed to have originated as a surname referring to someone with a piercing gaze or a piercing personality. Over time, the surname Peirce became used as a given name as well.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Peirce can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is listed as a surname. In the 13th century, the name appears in various records, including the Hundred Rolls of 1273, where it is spelled "Piers."
Historically, the name Peirce has been associated with several notable individuals. One of the most famous was Peirce Butler (c. 1330-1389), an English knight and military commander who served under King Edward III during the Hundred Years' War.
Another prominent figure was Peirce Egan (1772-1849), an Irish poet and songwriter known for his patriotic ballads and contributions to the development of Irish literature.
In the realm of philosophy, Peirce is most closely linked to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist who is considered one of the founders of pragmatism and semiotics.
In the field of literature, Peirce Miller (1867-1953) was an American novelist and short story writer who is best known for his work "The Marrow of Tradition," which explored racial tensions in the American South.
Lastly, Peirce Anderson (1926-2019) was a renowned American science fiction author who won numerous awards, including seven Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards, for his influential works in the genre.
These are just a few examples of prominent individuals throughout history who bore the name Peirce, highlighting its enduring presence across various fields and disciplines.
People
Peirce + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Peirce 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
Peirce: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Peirce?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 93 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Peirce 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 3,685,531 US residents.
Is Peirce a common name?
We classify Peirce as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 94 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Peirce most popular?
The single biggest year for Peirce was 1999, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Peirce is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Peirce in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 168 people with the name Peirce, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,627 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Peirce in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Peirce?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Peirce leans strongly male. 156 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 11 female bearers (6.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Peirce?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Peirce is White at 74.4%. The next largest groups are Black (8.3%) and Hispanic (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Peirce most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Peirce in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.4% (125 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Peirce in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Peirce a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Peirce 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.
Is Peirce still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Peirce in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Peirce can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people have the name Peirce?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.