Prince peaked in 2019 at rank 404 with 22,884 American boys carrying the name, a recent climb that reflects both the lingering cultural memory of musician Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016) and the broader virtue-and-aspiration word-name wave alongside King, Royal, and Saint. The name has held steadily since the peak.
The Latin first-place root
Prince comes from the Latin princeps, meaning "first" or "chief," derived from primus ("first") and capere ("to take"), giving the literal meaning "one who takes the first place." In medieval European usage, prince became a noble title for the son of a monarch, and the word entered English through Old French in the thirteenth century. The given-name use is largely a modern American innovation, with strong roots in Black American naming.
The dominant cultural reference is Prince Rogers Nelson, the musician whose Purple Rain album and broader career made the name a global cultural icon. His birth name was Prince Nelson, given by his musician parents, which blurs the line between aspirational naming and family-name choice. Other bearers include Prince Royce, the Bachata singer, and the broader use across Black American families since the mid-twentieth century.
The aspirational-word cohort
Prince pairs comfortably with other royalty-and-virtue word names rising in the 2010s and 2020s: King, Royal, Reign, and Saint share the aspirational register. The single-syllable, hard-consonant shape gives Prince a punchy, decisive quality that fits the broader trend toward bold word-names with built-in meanings.
The counter-reading
The honest consideration with Prince is the inherent expectation: the name comes with a built-in royal claim that a child must navigate across his life. The musician Prince's cultural shadow is also enormous, with the name carrying that artist's specific visibility for many listeners. Browse Latin names for related virtue choices, or compare with King for the parallel cohort. Sibling pairings work well across aspirational registers: Prince and Royal, Prince and Reign, Prince and Imani.