Humanverse

Priscilla vs Prisma

American parents have registered 123,040 Priscillas since 1880, against 423 Prismas. Priscilla is still ahead, with 555 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Priscilla against Prisma, 1880 to 2025 0 500 1k 1.5k 2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Priscilla Prisma

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Priscilla has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2023, when Priscilla had 452 and Prisma had 8.

Side by side

  Priscilla Prisma
Total US births 123,040423
Most in one year 1,99827
Babies in 2025 5555
Estimated living today 90,000420
Median age today 4330
Peak year 19421987
Best rank 135th girls3,331st girls
Rank in 2025 544th14,942nd
First recorded 18801984
Girls / boys 122,796 / 244423 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Priscillas alive today are over 43; half the Prismas are over 30. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Priscilla and Prisma.