Perseus
Masculine · Greek roots · “Not settled”
Perseus is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,390 boys against 32 girls since 1880.
Perseus has been spoken aloud for something like three thousand years — a Greek hero's name, then the name of the last king of Macedon, then a constellation that still carries it across the northern sky every August. Cellini cast him in bronze in sixteenth-century Florence and the statue stands in Florence still. In the mouth it runs to three unhurried syllables, PUR-see-us, and settles easily into Percy when someone is in a hurry.
How old is the name Perseus?
Perseus first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Perseus is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,400 people named Perseus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Perseus most popular?
Perseus peaked in 2025, reaching #1204 nationally. Today it ranks #1204, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Perseus appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Perseus (Greek Perseús) to Perseus
The story of Perseus
The name belongs first to Greek myth, where Perseus is the son of Danaë, the slayer of Medusa and the rescuer of Andromeda — a story already old when the classical poets retold it. It passed into Latin unchanged, which is why English spells it with the Roman -us ending rather than the Greek -os. Antiquity gave it to a real ruler as well: Perseus, the last king of Macedon, defeated by Rome at Pydna in 168 BC. Later ages kept it alive outside the nursery — Renaissance sculptors and painters returned to him constantly, and astronomers fixed his name to a constellation, whose meteor shower is still called the Perseids.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not settled; often linked to a Greek verb meaning to destroy or lay waste
One long-standing reading connects Perseus to the Greek verb pertheín, 'to destroy, to sack'. Many scholars instead treat it as pre-Greek — a name inherited from an older layer of speech in the Aegean and never satisfactorily explained. Both readings are taken seriously, and neither has won.
How the name formed
- PerseusGreek Perseús
- PerseusLatin
- PerseusEnglish
Related forms: Perseo · Perseo · Persée · Perseu · Perseusz · Персей (Persey)
Pronouncing Perseus
PUR-see-us
Three syllables, stress on the first. Some speakers compress the ending to two, PUR-syoos, closer to the Latin. Both are heard in the US and neither is wrong.
Nicknames for Perseus
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
- 1983
- Most boys named
- 2025168 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1204reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +9.1%168 in 2025, from 154
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.
Perseus in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Perseo in Italian — same name
- Perseo in Spanish — same name
- Persée in French — same name
- Perseu in Portuguese — same name
- Perseusz in Polish — same name
- Персей (Persey) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Perseuss among us
people named Perseus are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,167 born in 2025 was named Perseus
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 Rockie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Perseus's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rockie climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rockie's path sketches the road Perseus is walking now.
Perseus is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Perseus is headed
Perseus looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Perseus beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Perseus in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way the myth is spelled, so anyone who has met the story reads it correctly on sight.
- Percy is waiting as a ready-made short form, already familiar as a name by itself.
- Recognizable across Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Polish and Russian in barely altered forms.
- An unbroken written record from Greek myth through a Macedonian king, Renaissance sculpture and the star charts.
- Familiar as a word while remaining uncommon as a name — nearly certainly the only one in a classroom.
- The -us ending is formal and adult on paper. In practice most bearers will be called Percy or something shorter by other children, so it is worth liking the nickname as well as the full name.
- The myth is a violent one: a severed head, a petrifying gaze. Most people register only 'Greek hero', but the details come with the name.
- Rarity means a lifetime of spelling it out and correcting the stress — PUR-see-us, not per-SAY-us. That is manageable, and it is the same small tax every uncommon classical name pays.
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What they receive
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Perseus
Masculine · Greek roots · #1204 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Perseuss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Perseus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Perseus in 2025?
- Perseus ranks #1204 among US boy names in 2025, with 168 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Perseus?
- About 1 in every 10,167 US boys born in 2025 was named Perseus — 168 in all.
- Will my child share the name Perseus with classmates?
- Perseus will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Perseus
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Shivansh#1204 · Gerald#1204 · Immanuel#1204 · Jovani#1204 · Karsyn#1204 · Arman#1204 · Eyden#1204 · Zavian#1196
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Perseus? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Perseus and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
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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