Prospero

Boys' name

Fortunate

Prospero has been given to 71 babies in the U.S. since 1915. 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 1928, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Prospero, 1975

1 in 604,000

Prospero over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Prospero: meaning, origin, and history

Fortunate

Spanish

What Prospero means

Prospero means “fortunate”, associated with prosperus.

Origin, language, and formation

Prospero is used in Italian, Spanish and Tagalog. Its origins include Spanish.

Prospero comes through Latin prosperus.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Prospero is pronounced /pɾosˈpeɾo/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 71 boys were recorded with the name Prospero between 1915 and 1975. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1928; its best national rank was #3,297 in 1928.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Prospero?

Prospero had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1975, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1975: 1 in 604,000; 5 of 3,019,126 births
Among boys only: 1 in 312,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1975: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 418,541 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Prospero 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 1975 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 418,541 children born in 1975 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Prospero. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Prosperos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Prospero was born before 1925 — so the typical Prospero is around 100 today.

Median birth year: 1925; About 100 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 46.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 7.0%; Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950: 5; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 46.5% of all recorded uses (33).

Is Prospero 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 1928 (8)
Years since peak: 97; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 15.6% average annual change
Best rank ever: #3,297; 1928

Spellings of Prospero

Prospero is not the most common spelling — Prosper is, with 90.5% against Prospero's 9.5%.

Prosper90.5%678
Prospero9.5%71

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.

Prospero around the world

Where Prospero 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.

South Australia
1962–1962
#548
in 1962

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Prospero 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: #3,297; 1928
Peak year: 1928; 8 that year
First recorded: 1915
Last recorded: 1975
All-time count: 71
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Prospero

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

Prodigy Prophecy Procopio Prometheus Prophet Promise Antero Prosper Proctor Calogero Montero Lucero Gianpiero Guerrero Libero Cardero Kordero Baldomero Dinero Zero Quintero Denero Ero Genero

Sibling names for Prospero

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

For a sister

Edward Charline Ardis Germaine Darline Marvel Richard Leatrice

For a brother

Frances Jules Bud Rolland Normand Laverne Jewel Carrol

Explore around Prospero

Top names of 1928, Prospero's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1928 Boys' names starting with P