Pleasant
Masculine · “Pleasant”
Pleasant is given to both — 629 boys and 73 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Pleasant is an English word used as a boy's name, and it was a familiar one in the nineteenth-century South. Two remarkable Americans carried it: a chief of the Muscogee Creek Nation, and a woman who made a fortune in San Francisco and spent it on freedom.
How old is the name Pleasant?
Pleasant was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Pleasant alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Pleasant are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Pleasant most popular?
Pleasant peaked in 1880, reaching #425 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From plaisant to Pleasant
The story of Pleasant
Pleasant was given to boys across the American South in the nineteenth century, and it appears in the first federal records. Pleasant Porter became principal chief of the Muscogee Creek Nation in 1899 and led it through the years when its lands were divided into allotments and Oklahoma became a state. Mary Ellen Pleasant, who carried it as a surname, became one of the wealthiest Black women in the West, helped fund abolitionists, and in the 1860s sued San Francisco streetcar companies that refused to carry her. The spelling is recorded for a handful of girls, but it has been a boy's name in American use.
Meaning
Pleasant, agreeable
From the English word pleasant, from Old French plaisant, 'pleasing'.
How the name formed
- plaisant
- pleasant
- Pleasant
Related forms: Plaisant
Pronouncing Pleasant
PLEZ-unt
Said exactly like the word.
Nicknames for Pleasant
Limited
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 192422 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #425reached in 1880
- Change vs 1961
- −28.6%5 in 1962, from 7
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.
Pleasant in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Plaisant in French — related form
Pleasants among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Pleasant are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Pleasant sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A plain English word with a warm meaning.
- A long, documented history in the American South.
- Almost certain to be the only one.
- As a word used as a name, it invites comments every time it is said.
- It reads as a nineteenth-century name.
- A girl given it would be very unusual in the record.
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Pleasant
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Pleasants are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Pleasant are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Pleasant in 2025?
- Pleasant is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Pleasant with classmates?
- Pleasant will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Paul#262 · Patrick#235 · Peter#187 · Philip#527 · Phillip#651 · Parker#102 · Preston#299 · Pedro#455
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Pleasant? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Pleasant and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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