MEANING & HISTORY
What does Priscilla mean?
Priscilla is a Roman diminutive of Prisca. Prisca is feminine to Priscus, a Latin cognomen meaning ancient or old.
The name’s history includes the New Testament Priscilla, also called Prisca, who appears with her husband Aquila. The diminutive is a conventional personal-name form rather than a literal statement about the bearer’s age. This Roman and biblical formation is more precise than adding unsupported meanings such as wisdom or royal dignity.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
A female given name from Latin of biblical origin.
Wiktionary: Priscilla (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Priscilla
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Priscilla Almeda
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
5
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Priscilla Almeda
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Priscilla in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Priscilla
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Ariella♀Feminine of Ariel: lion of God
- Isabella♀My God is an oath; Isabel-family form
- Precious♀Valuable or greatly cherished
- Prince♂Prince; a ruler or royal son
- Princess♀Princess, a royal title used as a name
- Stella♀Star in Latin
- Bella♀Beautiful; also a short form of Isabella
- Daniella♀Feminine form of Daniel; God is my judge
What rhymes with Priscilla?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Priscilla further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q7165927 — Priscilla (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Priscilla Almeda (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q7165927 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Priscilla (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — Priscilla (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.
- Behind the Name — Prisca (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.