Priscella
Feminine · “little ancient one”
Priscella moves a vowel in a name that has two vowels nobody pronounces. The first and third syllables of Priscilla are both unstressed, both weak, and both can be written with an i or an e without changing anything a listener would notice — which is why the American record carries five spellings of one Roman name.
How old is the name Priscella?
Priscella first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Priscella alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 900 people named Priscella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Priscella most popular?
Priscella peaked in 1945, reaching #2339 nationally. See the whole 1945 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Latin adjective meaning ancient or venerable to Priscella
The story of Priscella
One of the most important early Christian sites in Rome is a catacomb named after a Priscilla, cut into a hillside on the Via Salaria and used for burials for three centuries. It contains what is generally accepted as the oldest known image of the Virgin and child, painted in the second or third century, and a fresco of a group of women at a table that has been argued about for decades — some scholars read it as women presiding at a eucharist, others as an ordinary funeral meal. The argument has consequences for a live question about women in the early church, and it turns on a damaged painting in a tunnel.
Meaning
little ancient one
The Roman family name behind it means old or former, and the ending is a diminutive, so the name means something like small venerable person. Rome regarded age as the highest compliment available and gave the name to babies without embarrassment. The unstressed vowels are where the spellings diverge: this version writes the second one as an e, another writes the first one that way, and neither alteration is audible.
How the name formed
- a Latin adjective meaning ancient or venerable
- Prisca and its diminutive Priscilla in Roman use
- a Roman catacomb carries the name
- English adopts the name after the Reformation
- five American spellings appear in the record
Related forms: Priscilla · Priscille · Priscila
Pronouncing Priscella
prih-SEL-uh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. This spelling shifts the middle vowel, which some families do sound — pri-SELL-uh rather than pri-SILL-uh — making it the one respelling in the family that is occasionally audible.
Nicknames for Priscella
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
- 1922
- Most girls named
- 198126 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2339reached in 1945
- Change vs 2016
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
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.
Priscella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Priscilla in Latin — spelling variant
- Priscille in French — same name
- Priscila in Spanish — same name
Priscellas among us
people named Priscella 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
Priscella 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
- Cilla is available and is thoroughly current in Britain.
- The name has an unbroken history of two thousand years.
- The spelling is genuinely rare while the name is entirely familiar.
- Priscilla is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected everywhere.
- Five spellings chart in the American record and no rule chooses between them.
- The meaning is a Roman compliment that reads oddly in English.
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Priscella
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Priscellas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Priscella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Priscella in 2025?
- Priscella is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Priscella with classmates?
- Priscella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Patricia#1334 · Pamela#2239 · Phyllis#11932 · Peggy#8362 · Paula#853 · Pauline#2957 · Pearl#776 · Paige#346
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Priscella? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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