Piers
A masculine English name derived from the Norman form of Peter.
Name Census estimates that about 284 living Americans carry the first name Piers. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Piers today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Piers births was 2013 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Piers. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Piers with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
284
~ 1 in 1,206,881 Americans
Peak year
2013
20 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,692
Tracked since 1952
Census
Piers in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 437 people with the first name Piers, which placed it at #22,679 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#22,679
National first-name rank
People counted
437
437 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Piers
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Piers is White at 77.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.3%) and Hispanic (6.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Piers described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Piers at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.8% · 340
- Two or more races7.3% · 32
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 28
- Black or African American5.0% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 15
Popularity
Piers: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Piers from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 102 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Piers by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Piers during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Piers' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Piers
The name Piers originated from the Norman French name Pierre, which is the French form of the ancient Greek name Petros, meaning "rock" or "stone". This name has its roots in the early Christian era, as it was derived from the name given to the apostle Simon by Jesus Christ, who referred to him as "Peter", meaning "rock", and declaring that upon this rock he would build his church.
The name Piers gained popularity in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, as it was brought over by the Norman nobility and became a common name among the upper classes. It was often used as an Anglicized form of the French name Pierre or the Latin name Petrus.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Piers can be found in the 12th-century epic poem "The Song of Roland", where a character named Piers is mentioned as one of the twelve peers of Charlemagne's court. In the 13th century, the name appeared in the writings of the English philosopher and theologian Roger Bacon, who referred to a contemporary named Piers de Maharne.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Piers. One of the earliest was Piers Gaveston, the famous favorite and alleged lover of King Edward II of England in the early 14th century. Another historical figure was Piers Plowman, the fictional narrator and central character of a celebrated Middle English allegorical poem written in the late 14th century.
In the 16th century, Sir Piers Edgcumbe (1536-1608) was an English soldier and Member of Parliament during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Piers Legh (1615-1692) was an English landowner and politician who served as High Sheriff of Cheshire during the English Civil War.
More recently, Piers Brendon (born 1940) is a British historian and writer, best known for his biographies of Winston Churchill and Edward VIII. Piers Morgan (born 1965) is a British broadcaster and journalist, known for his work on various television programs, including "Good Morning Britain" and "Piers Morgan Live".
Notable bearers
Famous people named Piers
People
Piers + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Piers as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Piers: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Piers?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 284 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Piers going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,206,881 US residents.
Is Piers a common name?
We classify Piers as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 290 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Piers most popular?
The single biggest year for Piers was 2013, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Piers is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Piers in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 437 people with the name Piers, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,679 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Piers in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Piers?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Piers leans strongly male. 431 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 10 female bearers (2.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Piers?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Piers is White at 77.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.3%) and Hispanic (6.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Piers most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Piers in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.8% (340 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Piers in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Piers a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Piers in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Piers still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Piers in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Piers can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Piers as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Piers on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.