How popular is the baby name Prisca in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Prisca.

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Popularity of the baby name Prisca


Posts that mention the name Prisca

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2015

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the most popular baby names in England and Wales last year were (again) Amelia and Oliver.

Here are the top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Amelia, 5,158 baby girls
2. Olivia, 4,853
3. Emily, 3,893
4. Isla, 3,474
5. Ava, 3,414
6. Ella, 3,028
7. Jessica, 2,937
8. Isabella, 2,876
9. Mia, 2,842
10. Poppy, 2,816
1. Oliver, 6,941 baby boys
2. Jack, 5,371
3. Harry, 5,308
4. George, 4,869
5. Jacob, 4,850
6. Charlie, 4,831
7. Noah, 4,148
8. William, 4,083
9. Thomas, 4,075
10. Oscar, 4,066

In the girls’ top 10, Ella and Mia replaced Lily (now 13th) and Sophie (now 11th).

In the boys’ top 10, Noah (the top name in the U.S. right now) replaced James (11th).

In the girls’ top 100, Penelope, Mila, Clara, Arabella, Maddison and Aria replaced Lydia (now 103rd), Faith (104th), Mollie (105th), Brooke (107th), Isabel (110th) and Amy (117th).

In the boys’ top 100, Jaxon, Roman, Reggie and Carter replaced Owen (now 101st), Robert (105th), Joey (117th) and Finlay (123rd).

Here are some of last year’s rare baby names, each given to either 3, 4 or 5 babies:

Rare Girl NamesRare Boy Names
Aarzoo, Autumn-Lily, Boglarka, Comfort, Edna, Enxi, Euphemia, Flourish, Fozia, Gabia, Jupiter, Lady, Lleucu, Llio, Merveille, Nectaria, Pebbles, Peony, Prisca, Purity, Quorra, Reisel, Sloka, Tuba, Venice, Vimbainashe, YlvaAlffi, Bam, Bright, Crimea, Cuthbert, Efezino, Elimelech, Fyfe, Ghyll, Gryff, James-Dean, Jamesdean, Kushagra, Ignatius, Marmaduke, Math, Mio, Osagie, Otso, Pip, Przemyslaw, Sherlock, Swayley, Ringo, Testimony, Thierno, Zephyrus

(Crimea is intriguing, isn’t it? It was used as a baby name in the 1850s, during the Crimean War, but this is the first time I’ve seen it on a modern name list.)

And how did Welsh names fare in Wales specifically?

Welsh Girl NamesWelsh Boy Names
Seren (“star”) ranks 17th in Wales
Ffion (“foxglove”), 20th
Megan, 27th (and 76th overall)
Mali, 45th
Alys, 66th
Carys (“love”), 72nd
Efa, 73rd
Cadi, 82nd
Lili, 85th
Lowri, 88th
Eira (“snow”), 92nd
Ela, 97th (tie)
Elin, 97th (tie)
Dylan, ranks 13th in Wales (and 38th overall)
Osian, 25th
Harri, 27th
Jac, 33rd
Rhys, 34th
Evan, 37th
Tomos, 47th
Cai, 51st
Ioan, 56th
Morgan, 67th
Elis, 66th
Hari, 82nd
Gethin (“swarthy”), 88th (tie)
Iestyn, 88th (tie)
Macsen, 92nd (tie)
Owain, 92nd (tie)
Ifan, 96th

Finally, if you’d like to go back another year, here are the England and Wales rankings for 2014.

Source: Baby names in England and Wales: 2015 – ONS

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Where did the baby name Prisca come from in 1959?

Diplomatic daughter Prisca Bunau-Varilla (in 1960).
Prisca Bunau-Varilla

The pretty name Prisca — which is related to the more familiar name Priscilla — appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the first time in 1959:

  • 1965: unlisted
  • 1964: 5 baby girls named Prisca
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: 5 baby girls named Prisca
  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: 10 baby girls named Prisca [debut]
  • 1958: unlisted

The most high-profile Prisca around that time was teenager Prisca Bunau-Varilla, the stepdaughter of Hervé Alphand, French Ambassador to the U.S. from 1956 to 1965.

Diplomatic daughter Prisca Bunau-Varilla (in 1960).
Prisca

Hervé had married Prisca’s mother Nicole in mid-1958. Both Hervé and Nicole had divorced from their original spouses a year earlier. (Nicole’s first husband was French aviation pioneer Étienne Bunau-Varilla.)

Prisca started being mentioned in the news a few months later. In October, for instance, she brought her hula hoop to an embassy party so that everyone (including the Cuban Ambassador to the U.S.) could try “the exercise that’s sweeping the country.” In November, she invited some teenage friends to attend a supper honoring a group of traveling French movie stars in order to meet leading man Gérard Philipe. A few weeks later, she helped her mother entertain opera singer Maria Callas.

For years, Prisca’s name continued to pop up in the newspapers. She was even featured in LIFE magazine twice (in 1959 and in 1960). This was largely thanks to her mother, a popular Washington hostess who became close to Jackie Kennedy in the early ’60s.

Do you like the name Prisca? Do you like it more or less than Priscilla? (Both are based on the Latin word priscus, meaning “ancient” or “old-fashioned.”)

Sources:

Images: © 1960 LIFE