Perla
Feminine · “pearl”
Perla is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 20,806 girls against 30 boys since 1880.
Perla is a pearl in Spanish and Italian — the same word Margaret carries in Greek, arrived at by a completely different road.
How old is the name Perla?
Perla first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Perla alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 20,500 people named Perla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Perla most popular?
Perla peaked in 2003, reaching #282 nationally. Today it ranks #1587, 1,305 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Perla appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From perla to Perla
The story of Perla
Gem names were used across Romance-speaking Europe as freely as in English, and Perla is the Spanish and Italian standard. It traveled into American records through Spanish-speaking and Italian-American families and rose steadily from the 1930s, peaking in the mid-1990s — later than most gem names, because its rise followed Hispanic naming rather than the Victorian fashion.
Meaning
pearl
From the Spanish and Italian perla, 'pearl', from a Latin word for a sea-mussel. The pearl was the most valuable gem of the ancient Mediterranean, more so than diamond, which is why it appears so often in scripture as an image of something beyond price.
How the name formed
- perla
- Perla
Related forms: Perla · Perla · Pearl · Margarites
Pronouncing Perla
PER-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spanish and Italian say it the same way with a rolled r.
Nicknames for Perla
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 20031,109 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #282reached in 2003
- Change vs 2023
- −35.0%132 in 2025, from 203
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Perla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Perla in Spanish — same name
- Perla in Italian — same name
- Pearl in English — related form
- Margarites in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Perlas among us
people named Perla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 12,176 born in 2025 was named Perla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sybil test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Perla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sybil climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sybil's path sketches the road Perla is walking now.
Perla sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Perla is headed
Perla should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Perla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Perla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and needs no explanation in any Romance language.
- It is standard in Spanish and Italian without any change of spelling.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk in English.
- It is an ordinary noun in Spanish and Italian, so it never reads as purely a name there.
- It is closely dated to the 1990s in American records.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Perla
Feminine · #1587 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Perlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 20,500 people named Perla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Perla in 2025?
- Perla ranks #1587 among US girl names in 2025, with 132 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Perla?
- About 1 in every 12,176 US girls born in 2025 was named Perla — 132 in all.
- Will my child share the name Perla with classmates?
- Perla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Perla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sedona#1587 · Koa#1587 · Lidia#1587 · Kinsleigh#1587 · Calista#1592 · Journie#1592 · Aislinn#1592 · Ever#1592
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Perla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Perla and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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