Prairie
Feminine · “meadow”
Prairie is a French word English took from fur traders — pré is a meadow, and the plains had no English name because England has nothing like them.
How old is the name Prairie?
Prairie first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Prairie is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Prairie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Prairie most popular?
Prairie peaked in 1977, reaching #3366 nationally. Today it ranks #4265, 899 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From pratum to Prairie
The story of Prairie
English speakers moving west found a landscape they had no vocabulary for and took French words for a good deal of it — prairie, butte, coulee, portage, cache — because French traders had been there first. Prairie is simply the French for a meadow, applied to something on a scale no French meadow ever reached. Its use as a given name is small and appears in American records from the 1970s.
Meaning
meadow, grassland
From French prairie, a meadow, from Latin pratum; English borrowed it in the eighteenth century because the great grasslands of North America needed a word and English had none of the right size.
How the name formed
- pratum
- prairie
Related forms: Prairie · Pradera
Pronouncing Prairie
PRAIR-ee
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Prairie
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 202434 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3366reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- −2.9%33 in 2025, from 34
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.
Prairie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Prairie in French — same name
- Pradera in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Prairies among us
people named Prairie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was named Prairie
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 Rex test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Prairie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rex climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rex's path sketches the road Prairie is walking now.
Prairie 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 Prairie is headed
Prairie looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Prairie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Prairie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An ordinary English word, so nobody has to be taught to say or spell it.
- A genuinely good story about why English needed to borrow it.
- Seven letters and two syllables, manageable to write.
- It is a common noun and will be read as one rather than as a name at first.
- The Pray clip is an English verb and will be used.
- It is strongly tied to one region of America.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Prairie to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Prairie? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Prairie
Feminine · #4265 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Prairies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Prairie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Prairie in 2025?
- Prairie ranks #4265 among US girl names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Prairie?
- About 1 in every 48,705 US girls born in 2025 was named Prairie — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Prairie with classmates?
- Prairie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Prairie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hyacinth#4265 · Halina#4265 · Michal#4265 · Sadia#4265 · Zahava#4265 · Maiah#4265 · Daysi#4265 · Corrie#4265
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Prairie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Prairie 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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle