Prince
A masculine given name meaning "ruler" or "leader".
Name Census estimates that about 19,831 living Americans carry the first name Prince. It sits at #404 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.7% of registrations). The average person named Prince today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Prince births was 2019 (1,162 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Prince. 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 Prince with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Prince is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 550 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
20K
~ 1 in 17,284 Americans
Peak year
2019
1,162 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#404
Tracked since 1880
Census
Prince in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,309 people with the first name Prince, which placed it at #1,816 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
#1,816
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
16,309 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Prince
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Prince is Black at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%). 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 Prince 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 Prince at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American71.8% · 11,706
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 1,599
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.5% · 1,383
- Two or more races5.1% · 835
- White4.3% · 709
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 77
Gender
Gender distribution for Prince
Prince leans heavily male at 97.7% of total registrations, but 550 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Prince as a male name
- Ranked #404 in 2024
- 797 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (1,162 births)
Prince as a female name
- Ranked #14,761 in 1991
- 5 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1947 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Prince leans strongly male. 16,030 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 271 female bearers (1.7%).
Popularity
Prince: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Prince from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 8,092 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Prince remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Prince 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 Prince during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Princes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. New York, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Prince, while South Dakota, Rhode Island, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 455 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Prince
The name Prince has its origins in the Latin word "princeps" which means "first" or "chief". It was originally a title denoting rank or authority and was later adopted as a personal name.
The earliest recorded use of Prince as a first name dates back to the 3rd century AD, when it appeared in Roman historical records. It was a popular name among the Roman nobility and was often given to the sons of emperors or high-ranking officials.
In the Middle Ages, Prince became a popular name in Western Europe, particularly in England and France. During this period, it was often associated with royalty and was used by members of the aristocracy.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Prince is Prince Henry the Navigator, a 15th-century Portuguese prince who was instrumental in the early stages of European exploration and the Age of Discovery. He was born in 1394 and died in 1460.
Another notable Prince from history is Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a 17th-century German-born military leader who played a significant role in the English Civil War. He was born in 1619 and died in 1682.
In the 18th century, Prince was a popular name among African Americans, particularly those who were born into slavery. One such notable figure was Prince Whipple, a free African American who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was born around 1750 and died in 1796.
In the 19th century, Prince was a popular name among European royalty. One famous example is Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. He was born in 1819 and died in 1861.
In the 20th century, the name Prince gained popularity in the United States, particularly among African Americans. One of the most famous individuals with this name is Prince Rogers Nelson, the legendary American musician who was simply known as Prince. He was born in 1958 and died in 2016.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Prince
People
Prince + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Prince 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
Prince: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Prince?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,831 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Prince 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 17,284 US residents.
Is Prince a common name?
We classify Prince as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,434 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Prince most popular?
The single biggest year for Prince was 2019, when 1,162 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Prince 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 Prince in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,309 people with the name Prince, or 5.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,816 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 Prince 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 Prince?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Prince leans strongly male. 16,030 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 271 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Prince?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Prince is Black at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.5%). 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 Prince most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Prince in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (11,706 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 Prince in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Prince a male name?
Yes, 97.7% of people registered as Prince 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 Prince still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Prince 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 Prince 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 common is the name Prince?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Prince at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.