Piersen
A masculine name of English origin, a variant of Piers or Peirse.
Name Census estimates that about 28 living Americans carry the first name Piersen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Piersen today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Piersen births was 2014 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Piersen. 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 Piersen. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
28
~ 1 in 12,241,226 Americans
Peak year
2014
11 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2019 SSA rank
#13,627
Tracked since 2008
Popularity
Piersen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Piersen from the 2000s through to the 2010s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 21 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Piersen 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 Piersen 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 Piersen
The name Piersen has its origins in the Dutch language and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Dutch word "pier," which means a stone or pillar, and the suffix "-sen," which denotes a patronymic or familial relationship. Therefore, Piersen likely originated as a surname referring to someone who lived near or worked with stone pillars or structures.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Piersen can be found in the Dutch city of Leiden in the 14th century. Historical records from this period mention a Pieter Piersen, a merchant and member of the city's wealthy elite. While not much is known about his life, his name suggests that the Piersen surname was already in use during this time.
In the 16th century, the name Piersen gained prominence in the Netherlands with the rise of the Protestant Reformation. Pieter Jansz Saenredam (1597-1665), a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker, was born Pieter Piersen but later changed his surname to reflect his father's name, Jan Saenredam.
Another notable figure bearing the name Piersen was Pieter Cornelisz Hooft (1581-1647), a Dutch historian, poet, and playwright. He was a prominent figure in the Dutch Renaissance and is considered one of the greatest Dutch writers of the 17th century.
During the Dutch colonial expansion in the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Piersen likely spread to other parts of the world as Dutch settlers and traders established communities in various regions. One example is Pieter Piersen Ebbesøn (1615-1689), a Danish-Norwegian merchant and ship owner who operated in the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands).
In more recent history, Piersen Mell (1823-1888) was an American Baptist minister and educator who served as the president of several universities in the southern United States, including the University of Georgia and Mercer University.
While the name Piersen has Dutch roots, it has been adopted and adapted by various cultures and languages over time. Its association with stone pillars and structures has given it a sense of strength and stability, making it a unique and distinctive name with a rich historical background.
People
Piersen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Piersen 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
Piersen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Piersen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 28 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Piersen 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 12,241,226 US residents.
Is Piersen a common name?
We classify Piersen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 45.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 28 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Piersen most popular?
The single biggest year for Piersen was 2014, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Piersen is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Piersen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Piersen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Piersen 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 Piersen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Piersen 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 Piersen 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have the name Piersen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.