Name Generator

How popular is the name Percival?

Births per year, rank history and how many Percivals are alive today.

Percival (male), once a common boys' name, is now an uncommon choice for new babies in England and Wales, ranked 735th in 2025 with 47 given the name. The name peaked in 1904, when around 1,100 babies were given the name, the 72nd most popular that year. It has declined since 1904; the 2025 figure is roughly 4% of its peak. Numbers have been rising in recent years. At least 34,000 babies have been named Percival in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Common short forms of Percival include Percy.

The Percival you are most likely to meet is around 74 years old. Half of all Percivals born in England and Wales are between 56 and 80, and there are at least 11,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 males, there's roughly a 3.6% chance that at least one of them will be called Percival.

How many babies are named Percival each year?

Where does Percival rank among boys' names?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.