Precilla
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "ancient" or "venerable".
Name Census estimates that about 489 living Americans carry the first name Precilla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Precilla today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Precilla births was 1957 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Precilla. 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.
People living today
489
~ 1 in 700,929 Americans
Peak year
1957
29 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2010 SSA rank
#16,476
Tracked since 1911
Census
Precilla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 640 people with the first name Precilla, which placed it at #17,310 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
#17,310
National first-name rank
People counted
640
640 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Precilla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Precilla is Hispanic at 42.3%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.9%). 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 Precilla 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 Precilla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.3% · 271
- Black or African American21.6% · 138
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.9% · 121
- White12.3% · 79
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 16
- Two or more races2.3% · 15
Popularity
Precilla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Precilla from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 103 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Precilla 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 Precilla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Precillas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, New Mexico recorded the most babies named Precilla, while New Mexico, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Precilla
The given name Precilla is believed to have its origins in the Latin language. It is thought to be a feminine form of the Latin name Priscillus, which itself is a diminutive of the name Priscus. The root word "priscus" in Latin means "ancient" or "old-fashioned".
In early Christian history, there was a famous woman named Priscilla who is mentioned in the New Testament. She was a Jewish missionary who helped spread Christianity in the first century AD, alongside her husband Aquila. They are celebrated as saints in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
The earliest recorded use of the name Precilla dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe. One notable bearer of this name was Precilla of Narnia, an Italian noblewoman who lived in the 12th century. She was known for her charitable works and was later canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
In the 16th century, there was a Spanish woman named Precilla de Guzmán who was a prominent figure in the court of King Philip II of Spain. She served as a lady-in-waiting to the queen and was known for her intelligence and wit.
Another historical figure with this name was Precilla Bourneville, a French educator and philanthropist who lived in the 19th century. She founded several schools for underprivileged children and worked tirelessly to improve education opportunities for the poor.
In the realm of literature, one of the most famous bearers of the name Precilla was the character from the novel "The Vicar of Wakefield" by Oliver Goldsmith, published in 1766. Precilla was the daughter of the vicar and was portrayed as a virtuous and dutiful young woman.
Other notable figures throughout history who bore the name Precilla include Precilla de' Medici, an Italian noblewoman from the powerful Medici family in the 15th century, and Precilla Lascelles, an English aristocrat and philanthropist who lived in the 18th century.
People
Precilla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Precilla 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
Precilla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Precilla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 489 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Precilla 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 700,929 US residents.
Is Precilla a common name?
We classify Precilla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 671 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Precilla most popular?
The single biggest year for Precilla was 1957, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Precilla is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Precilla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 640 people with the name Precilla, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,310 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 Precilla 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 Precilla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Precilla appears almost entirely female. Of the 645 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Precilla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Precilla is Hispanic at 42.3%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (18.9%). 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 Precilla most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Precilla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.3% (271 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 Precilla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Precilla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Precilla in the SSA data are female. 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 Precilla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Precilla 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 Precilla 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 are named Precilla?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.