Name Awesome

Prentiss

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Prentiss has been given to 2,789 babies in the U.S. since 1887. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1943, with 47 recorded.

Babies named Prentiss, 2024

1 in 478,000

Prentiss 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Prentiss: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Prentiss means

Prentiss is a given name.

The naming story behind Prentiss

Wikidata records Prentiss as a given name. The entity identifier is Q84317809, 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, 2,724 boys were recorded with the name Prentiss between 1887 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 47 in 1943; its best national rank was #983 in 1943.

In the United States, 65 girls were recorded with the name Prentiss between 1951 and 2018. Its highest annual count was 10 in 2012; its best national rank was #4,716 in 1951.

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 Prentiss?

Prentiss had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 478,000
7 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 246,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
331,009 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Prentiss 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 2024 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 331,009 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Prentiss. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Prentisss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Prentiss was born before 1958 — so the typical Prentiss is around 67 today.

Median birth year
1958
About 67 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
12.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
8.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,644
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 12.6% of all recorded uses (343).

Is Prentiss 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1943 (47)
Years since peak
82
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#983
1943

Spellings of Prentiss

Prentiss is not the most common spelling — Prentice is, with 49.7% against Prentiss's 34.4%.

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 Prentiss is used

Across 1910–2025, Prentiss was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 3,846 boys, against 1 in 58,086 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

026 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 3,846
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 33,333
  3. 3South Carolina1 in 100,000
  4. 4Alabama1 in —
  5. 5Florida1 in —
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Tennessee1 in —
  8. 8Texas1 in —

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. Prentiss has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Prentiss around the world

Where Prentiss 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.

  • France
    2012–2017
    #5,571
    in 2017

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Prentiss

People whose public names include Prentiss, 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.

Prentiss by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#983
1943
Peak year
1943
47 that year
First recorded
1887
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
2,724
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,716
1951
Peak year
2012
10 that year
First recorded
1951
Last recorded
2018
All-time count
65
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Prentiss

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

PrenticePrescottPresleyPrestynPrentisPrestinPressleyPrestenCurtissArlissPreciousChrissPrestonPremPremierPreacherCrissCorlissIdrissKurtissPresleePressJadakissBliss

Names with a curve like Prentiss

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

ElleryKennardFlorencioVernellAnastacioCandelarioDoranModestoEusebioCiprianoDavieLovell

Sibling names for Prentiss

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 Prentiss

Top names of 1943, Prentiss's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1943Boys' names starting with P