Princess

About Princess

Princess is an English title name taken directly from the word for a female member of a royal family. Its history leads through French to the same Latin root as Prince. Australian footballer Princess Ibini provides a modern example of the word functioning as a full personal name in international sport.

Meaning and word history

English princess came through Middle English from Anglo-Norman and Old French princesse. Prince itself ultimately comes from Latin princeps, so the feminine title belongs to a word family with a long European history.

The title can refer to a monarch’s daughter or granddaughter, the wife of a prince, or a woman ruling a principality. The exact position depends on the particular monarchy or historical setting.

As a personal name, Princess keeps the familiar English spelling. It belongs beside title names such as Prince, Queen, and King, although those words do not all have the same origin.

The word has been part of English since the Middle Ages. Its history as a title is therefore much older than the modern American birth records in which it also appears as a first name.

Princess Ibini and football

Princess Ibini made her Sydney FC debut in 2015 at fifteen. She later represented Australia’s senior women’s national team, the Matildas, making her international debut in 2017.

That debut came at the Tournament of Nations against the United States. Her brother Bernie had represented Australia’s men’s team, making them the first brother-and-sister pairing to play for the two senior national sides.

Ibini scored her first senior international goal in 2022 in a friendly against Portugal, a match that ended 1–1. Her club career also included Sydney FC championship victories in 2019, 2023, and 2024.

During the 2023–24 season she captained Sydney while Nat Tobin was injured. These milestones give Princess a particular sporting history, with the same name appearing in youth, club, and international football records.

A spoken and written title name

Princess has two syllables. PRIN-sess, with stress at the beginning, is a familiar English pronunciation; a final-stressed prin-SESS is also recorded for the personal name.

Prince is the direct masculine counterpart. Queen and King share the title-name style but belong to a different word family. The spelling Princess preserves the complete English title, including its final -ess ending.

Ibini’s use makes the distinction between a name and a title especially clear: Princess appears as her given name in football results and player biographies, followed by her surname.

American popularity

Princess’s largest annual American total for girls was 400 in 2006, when it ranked #713. In 2025 it was given to 209 girls and ranked #1,122.

The recent figures show continued personal-name use of a word whose royal and literary associations are much older.

How popular is Princess?

In 2025, Princess ranked #1,122 among girls in the United States, with 209 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1895; its largest annual count was 400 in 2006. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.