Portia
Feminine · “Latin "of the Porcius family”
Portia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 10,627 girls against 8 boys since 1880.
Rome's great families were named after farm produce. Porcius, from which Portia comes, is the pig family; Fabius is the bean family; Lentulus is lentil; Cicero is chickpea. The men who ran an empire carried surnames from the vegetable patch.
How old is the name Portia?
Portia first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Portia alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 8,600 people named Portia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Portia most popular?
Portia peaked in 1949, reaching #587 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 6,904 places below that high. See the whole 1949 chart.
Where it comes from
From porcus to Portia
The story of Portia
Roman family names were frequently agricultural or physical, and unflatteringly so. Cicero's name means chickpea, and Plutarch reports that friends advised him to change it when entering politics; he refused and said he would make it more famous than the Metelli. Fabius is from faba, a bean; Lentulus from lens, a lentil; Piso from pisum, a pea; Porcius from porcus, a pig. Others describe features: Naso is nose, Crassus is fat, Rufus is red-haired, Caecus is blind. Portia entered English through Shakespeare, whose Portia is a lawyer in disguise, and the American figures peak in 1949.
Meaning
Latin "of the Porcius family" — from porcus, a pig
Porcia is the feminine of Porcius, a Roman gens name from porcus, a pig or hog, presumably describing an ancestor who kept them. Portia is the English spelling, established by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice around 1597. The Roman Porcia was the daughter of Cato the Younger and the wife of Brutus. The name has no connection to the word portion or to Portugal.
How the name formed
- porcus
- Porcia
- Portia
Related forms: Porcia · Porzia
Pronouncing Portia
POR-shuh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ti said as sh — the ordinary English treatment of Latin -tia, as in patience and militia. Latin Porcia is POR-kee-ah with a hard c.
Nicknames for Portia
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
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 1989259 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #587reached in 1949
- Change vs 2022
- +75.0%14 in 2025, from 8
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.
Portia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Porcia in Latin — same name
- Porzia in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Portias among us
people named Portia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Portia
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 Lavada test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Portia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lavada climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lavada's path sketches the road Portia is walking now.
Portia 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
Portia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Portia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of Shakespeare's best-known and most capable characters.
- The Roman history behind it is fully documented.
- Tia works as a short form and stands alone.
- The literal Latin sense of the family name is pig.
- It is easily confused in speech with the car marque Porsche.
- The mid-century peak dates a bearer fairly clearly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Portia to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Portia
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Portias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,600 people named Portia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Portia in 2025?
- Portia ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Portia?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Portia — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Portia with classmates?
- Portia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Portia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Portia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Portia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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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