Prentiss
Masculine · “apprentice”
Prentiss is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,724 boys against 65 girls since 1880.
Prentiss is the word apprentice with its first syllable worn off. English does that constantly to unstressed openings — it made a squire out of an esquire and a story out of a history — and here it produced a surname out of a job description for somebody learning a trade.
How old is the name Prentiss?
Prentiss first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Prentiss alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 1,700 people named Prentiss are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Prentiss most popular?
Prentiss peaked in 1887, reaching #921 nationally. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aprentis to Prentiss
The story of Prentiss
Losing an unstressed first syllable is one of the most reliable things English does, and the results are all over the language: a spital from a hospital, a tend from an attend, a cute from an acute. Surnames caught the same process. Prentice and Prentiss are the same word, and a man given it was identified by the least impressive fact about him — that he was not yet a master. The name crossed to America, moved to the front, and is recorded for girls as well as boys, which the double s ending encourages.
Meaning
apprentice, learner
The Old French aprentis gave English apprentice, and dropping the unstressed first syllable gave Prentice as a surname. It named a man by his position in a workshop.
How the name formed
- aprentis
- Prentice
- Prentiss
Pronouncing Prentiss
PREN-tiss
Two syllables with the weight at the front. There is no second reading to correct.
Nicknames for Prentiss
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
- 1887
- Most boys named
- 195244 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #921reached in 1887
- Change vs 2019
- −12.5%7 in 2024, 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.
Prentisss among us
people named Prentiss are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Prentiss 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
- Both syllables are readable, so the name is said correctly at sight.
- It works as a surname and as a first name, which suits families that use both.
- The meaning is concrete and unusually humble for a name.
- Prentice is the commoner spelling of the same name and will be written instead.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys in the United States.
- It reads clearly as a name of the nineteenth century.
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Prentiss
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Frequently asked
- How many Prentisss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Prentiss are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Prentiss in 2025?
- Prentiss is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Prentiss with classmates?
- Prentiss 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 Prentiss? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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