Portia
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "pig tender" or "sweeper".
Name Census estimates that about 7,892 living Americans carry the first name Portia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Portia today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Portia births was 1989 (267 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Portia. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Portia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.9K
~ 1 in 43,431 Americans
Peak year
1989
267 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
1989 SSA rank
#6,076
Tracked since 1882
Census
Portia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,535 people with the first name Portia, which placed it at #2,744 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
#2,744
National first-name rank
People counted
8.5K
8,535 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
56.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Portia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Portia is Black at 56.0%. The next largest groups are White (30.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). 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 Portia 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 Portia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American56.0% · 4,776
- White30.6% · 2,613
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 453
- Two or more races4.1% · 354
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 289
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 50
Gender
Gender distribution for Portia
Out of the 10,621 babies given the name Portia since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Portia as a male name
- Ranked #6,076 in 1989
- 8 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (8 births)
Portia as a female name
- Ranked #6,087 in 2024
- 20 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (259 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Portia appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,540 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Portia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Portia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,872 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Portia 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 Portia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Portias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. California, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Portia, while Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 205 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Portia
The name Portia originated from the Latin word "portius," which means "of the port." This suggests that the name may have been derived from an occupation or location related to ports or harbors in ancient Rome. The name gained prominence during the Roman Republic and Empire periods.
One of the earliest historical references to the name Portia can be found in the writings of ancient Roman historian Plutarch, who mentioned a woman named Portia, the wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, a Roman politician and one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. Portia lived from around 70 BC to 42 BC.
In William Shakespeare's famous play "The Merchant of Venice," written around 1596-1597, one of the main characters is a wealthy heiress named Portia. This literary reference helped popularize the name in English-speaking cultures.
Another notable Portia from history was Portia Wills Woodson (1875-1962), an American educator and activist who advocated for equal educational opportunities for African American children. She founded the Portia Washington Woodson School in Arkansas in 1924.
In the 19th century, Portia Agar (1828-1887) was a British artist and sculptor who exhibited her works at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She is known for her sculptures depicting scenes from literature and mythology.
Portia Simpson Miller (born 1945) is a Jamaican politician who served as the Prime Minister of Jamaica from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2016. She was the first woman to hold the position of Prime Minister in Jamaica.
While the name Portia has Roman origins, it has been used across various cultures and time periods, often associated with strong, influential, and accomplished women throughout history.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Portia
People
Portia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Portia 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
Portia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Portia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,892 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Portia 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 43,431 US residents.
Is Portia a common name?
We classify Portia as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,621 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Portia most popular?
The single biggest year for Portia was 1989, when 267 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Portia is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Portia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,535 people with the name Portia, or 2.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,744 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 Portia 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 Portia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Portia appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,540 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Portia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Portia is Black at 56.0%. The next largest groups are White (30.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). 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 Portia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Portia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.0% (4,776 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 Portia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Portia a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Portia in the SSA data are female. 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 Portia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Portia 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 Portia 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 common is the name Portia?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Portia at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.