Pérola
Meaning
the Portuguese word for 'pearl', used directly as a feminine given name in Brazil
The story
Pérola is simply the Portuguese word for pearl, worn as a name, and Brazil is wearing it right now: the 2022 census counted 30,391 Pérolas with a median age of three. Three. The curve is a sprint: 503 born in the 1990s, 2,047 in the 2000s, 11,597 in the 2010s, and 15,266 already this decade, past the full decade before it with years to spare. The name had quiet Brazilian credentials all along: Pérola Byington, born Pearl Ellis McIntyre, was the philanthropist whose name a great São Paulo hospital carries, and the actress Pérola Faria, born in Rio in 1991, brought it to television. No reference book gives Pérola an ancient etymology, because it does not need one: the word is the meaning. A gem name in the most literal sense, having its moment.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Pérola does not appear in US Social Security baby-name records, which list only names given to at least five babies in a year. There is no popularity curve to chart: a genuinely rare pick.
Popularity in Brazil
30,391 people · the #818 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 6,667 · median age 3
Among people named Pérola living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 15,266 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Pérola deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Pérola truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Pérola fits with your family’s names and surname.
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