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Prentice

#11,667 in 2025Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Prentice has been given to 3,992 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #11,667 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1939, with 60 recorded.

Babies named Prentice, 2025

1 in 553,000

Prentice over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Prentice: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Prentice means

Prentice is a given name.

The naming story behind Prentice

Wikidata records Prentice as a given name. The entity identifier is Q21471177, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,929 boys were recorded with the name Prentice between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 60 in 1939; its best national rank was #792 in 1939.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #6,930 in 2020 to #11,667 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,664 in 2015 to #11,667 in 2025.

In the United States, 63 girls were recorded with the name Prentice between 1918 and 2020. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1932; its best national rank was #3,839 in 1932.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Prentice?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 553,000
6 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#11,667
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
382,984 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Prentice sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 382,984 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Prentice. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Prentices were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Prentice was born before 1959 — so the typical Prentice is around 66 today.

Median birth year
1959
About 66 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
11.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,393
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 11.4% of all recorded uses (448).

Is Prentice rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+325
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−4,737
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−7,003
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.29×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
10.0%
Peak was 1939 (60)
Years since peak
86
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#792
1939

Spellings of Prentice

Prentice is the most-used spelling, taking 49.7% of the 7,913 babies given a near-identical spelling.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Prentice is used

Across 1910–2025, Prentice was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 91,803 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 25,000
  2. 2Tennessee1 in 25,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 50,000
  4. 4Louisiana1 in 50,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 50,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in 100,000
  7. 7Arkansas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Prentice has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Prentice around the world

Where Prentice ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2007
    #4,333
    in 2007
  • Scotland
    1997–2009
    #626
    in 2009

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and National Records of Scotland. ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Notable people named Prentice

People whose public names include Prentice, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Prentice by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#11,667
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 4,737
Best rank ever
#792
1939
Peak year
1939
60 that year
First recorded
1884
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,929
Count in 2025
6

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,839
1932
Peak year
1932
7 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
2020
All-time count
63
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Prentice

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

PrescottPresleyPrentissPrestynPrentisBernicePricePatriceJusticePrestinPressleyPrestenMarquiceFabriceDemetriceTyriceBeatricePrestonBurnicePreciousVerniceBricePremPremier

Names with a curve like Prentice

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Prentice, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

RefugioPorfirioFlorencioSherwinLovellEusebioFlorentinoElginVernellAnastacioBartholomewEllery

Sibling names for Prentice

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Prentice

Top names of 1939, Prentice's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1939Boys' names starting with P