Priscilla
- Pronunciation
- [Pris-ci-lla]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Not recorded
- Origin
- English
Priscilla is a name traditionally given to a girl of English origin. Our sources do not preserve a single agreed-upon literal translation for this particular name, so we list its meaning as unrecorded rather than guess at one. Browse more English baby names or search the full library by meaning.
About the Name Priscilla
Priscilla descends from the Latin Prisca, the feminine form of the Roman family name Priscus, derived from priscus meaning "ancient," "venerable," or "old." The biblical Priscilla (also called Prisca) was an early Christian woman mentioned in Acts 18 and several Pauline Epistles — the wife of Aquila and a foundational figure in early Christian missionary work alongside Paul. The Latinate Priscilla has been used continuously across English-speaking and Catholic-influenced naming traditions for centuries.
Notable bearers include American actress Priscilla Presley (Priscilla Ann Beaulieu Presley, born 1945, the iconic ex-wife of Elvis Presley and American actress); American actress Priscilla Lane (1915–1995, the iconic American Hollywood Golden Age actress); the iconic American 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; and the contemporary American basketball player Priscilla Williams.
Priscilla held a US top-100 girls' rank from 1955 through 1985 — about three decades of consistent American popularity. The name has receded since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 girls' rank. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-Roman-biblical pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built ancient/venerable etymological register, the strong Priscilla Presley American cultural anchor, and the elegant Latinate sophistication. Three flowing syllables, soft consonants, and the name reads as both classical-Roman and contemporary American. Common nicknames Cilla (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm), Cici (alternate, a popular standalone name), Pris, Prissy, Silla, and the rare Lala each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Priscilla, Pricilla, and Prisilla have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Priscila (Spanish/Portuguese), Prisca (Italian original), Priscille (French alternate), and the original Latin Prisca.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Priscilla
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Priscilla by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 1,170 girls named Priscilla (girl rank #273 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #544 for girls (555 US births). That's 271 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Priscilla Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Priscilla the strongest states are California, Nevada, Arkansas.
Strongest girls-name states
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana | #822 | 18 |
| 2 | Michigan | #814 | 86 |
| 3 | North Carolina | #799 | 96 |
| 4 | Alabama | #766 | 33 |
| 5 | South Carolina | #764 | 38 |
| 6 | Georgia | #759 | 83 |
| 7 | Ohio | #733 | 58 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | #728 | 59 |
| 9 | Virginia | #722 | 55 |
| 10 | Maryland | #710 | 51 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Priscilla in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Priscilla
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Priscilla.
- Priscilla Presley — TV Actress (1945)
Looking for names like Priscilla?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Priscilla to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Priscilla against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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