Prescilla
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "ancient" or "venerable".
Name Census estimates that about 789 living Americans carry the first name Prescilla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Prescilla today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Prescilla births was 1991 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Prescilla. 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
789
~ 1 in 434,416 Americans
Peak year
1991
28 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2011 SSA rank
#14,488
Tracked since 1919
Popularity
Prescilla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Prescilla from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 193 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Prescilla 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 Prescilla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Prescillas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New Mexico, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Prescilla, while Georgia, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 81 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Prescilla
The name Prescilla is derived from the Latin name Priscilla, which itself is a diminutive form of the Roman family name Prisca. The name Prisca was derived from the Latin word "priscus," meaning "ancient" or "venerable." This suggests that the name Prescilla has its roots in ancient Roman culture.
The earliest known use of the name Priscilla can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, where it refers to a woman who was a companion of the apostle Paul and a leader in the early Christian church. This association with early Christianity likely contributed to the name's popularity among Christians in subsequent centuries.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Prescilla was Prescilla, a Roman martyr who was executed during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the early 4th century AD. Her feast day is celebrated on January 18th in the Catholic Church.
In the 5th century AD, there was a Priscilla who was the wife of the Western Roman Emperor Flavius Aetius. She was a prominent figure in the court of the Western Roman Empire during a time of political turmoil and upheaval.
During the Renaissance period, a notable figure named Prescilla was Prescilla di Bartolomeo, an Italian painter who lived in the 15th century and was active in the city of Florence. She was one of the few female artists of the time whose work is still known and celebrated today.
In the 16th century, there was a Prescilla Molines, who was a Spanish mystic and writer. She is known for her spiritual writings and her advocacy for the rights of women within the Catholic Church.
Another significant figure with the name Prescilla was Prescilla Wakefield, an English Quaker and educator who lived in the 18th century. She was a prominent advocate for women's education and founded several schools for girls during a time when access to education for women was limited.
People
Prescilla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Prescilla 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
Prescilla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Prescilla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 789 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Prescilla 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 434,416 US residents.
Is Prescilla a common name?
We classify Prescilla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,037 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Prescilla most popular?
The single biggest year for Prescilla was 1991, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Prescilla is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Prescilla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Prescilla 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.
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.