Priscilla
Feminine given name derived from the ancient Latin family name Priscillus.
Name Census estimates that about 83,583 living Americans carry the first name Priscilla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Priscilla today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Priscilla births was 1942 (1,998 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Priscilla. 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 Priscilla with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Priscilla is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 244 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
84K
~ 1 in 4,101 Americans
Peak year
1942
1,998 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
1997 SSA rank
#615
Tracked since 1880
Census
Priscilla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 87,905 people with the first name Priscilla, which placed it at #603 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
#603
National first-name rank
People counted
88K
87,905 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
29.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Priscilla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Priscilla is White at 39.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (37.0%) and Black (14.9%). 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 Priscilla 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 Priscilla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.4% · 34,620
- Hispanic or Latino37.0% · 32,484
- Black or African American14.9% · 13,101
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 4,812
- Two or more races2.1% · 1,860
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 1,028
Gender
Gender distribution for Priscilla
Out of the 122,478 babies given the name Priscilla since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Priscilla as a male name
- Ranked #8,980 in 1997
- 6 male births in 1997
- Peak: 1985 (14 births)
Priscilla as a female name
- Ranked #615 in 2024
- 484 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1942 (1,988 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Priscilla appears almost entirely female. Of the 87,905 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Priscilla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Priscilla from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 18,165 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Priscilla 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 Priscilla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Priscillas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Priscilla, while Wyoming, Alaska, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,286 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Priscilla
The name Priscilla has its origins in the Latin language. It is a feminine form of the Roman name Priscus, which means "ancient" or "venerable." The name first appeared during the Roman Empire, around the first century AD.
Priscilla was a fairly common name among Roman women, particularly those from aristocratic families. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Priscilla, the wife of the Roman general Abienus Rufus, who lived in the 1st century AD.
In the New Testament, Priscilla is mentioned as a companion of the apostle Paul. She and her husband Aquila were tentmakers who traveled with Paul and helped to spread Christianity in various parts of the Roman Empire.
During the Middle Ages, the name Priscilla was relatively rare, but it continued to be used by some Christian families, particularly in Italy and other parts of Europe influenced by Roman culture.
One of the most notable historical figures named Priscilla was Priscilla Mullins, a passenger on the Mayflower and one of the founders of the Plymouth Colony in 1620. She was born around 1604 in England and died in 1680 in Massachusetts.
Another famous Priscilla was Priscilla Alden, the wife of John Alden, who was also a passenger on the Mayflower. She was born around 1602 in England and died in 1685 in Massachusetts.
In the 17th century, the name Priscilla gained popularity among the Puritans in England and later in the American colonies. One notable bearer of the name was Priscilla Carpenter, a Puritan woman who was accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. She was born around 1624 and died in 1698.
Priscilla Wakefield, an English Quaker and author of children's literature, was born in 1751 and died in 1832. Her works, such as "An Introduction to Botany" and "Mental Improvement," were widely read and influential.
In the 19th century, Priscilla was a popular name among American families, particularly in New England. One famous Priscilla from this period was Priscilla Moline, an American educator and author who was born in 1819 and died in 1893.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Priscilla
People
Priscilla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Priscilla 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
Priscilla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Priscilla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 83,583 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Priscilla 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 4,101 US residents.
Is Priscilla a common name?
We classify Priscilla as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 122,478 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Priscilla most popular?
The single biggest year for Priscilla was 1942, when 1,998 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Priscilla is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Priscilla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 87,905 people with the name Priscilla, or 29.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #603 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 Priscilla 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 Priscilla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Priscilla appears almost entirely female. Of the 87,905 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Priscilla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Priscilla is White at 39.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (37.0%) and Black (14.9%). 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 Priscilla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Priscilla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.4% (34,620 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 Priscilla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Priscilla a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Priscilla 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 Priscilla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Priscilla 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 Priscilla 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 share the name Priscilla?
Want to know how many Americans are named Priscilla? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.