Pierce
Meaning
surname meaning 'son of Piers', a medieval form of Peter (Greek 'rock')
The story
Pierce is Peter twice removed: the Greek petros, rock, became the medieval English Piers, the plowman hero of a great fourteenth-century poem, and Piers grew the surname that circled back to the certificate. The record kept a small steady flame for nine decades, between about 130 and 560 boys a decade from the 1890s through the 1970s, then caught: about 780 in the 1980s, 2,400 in the 1990s, 4,900 in the 2000s, 5,900 in the 2010s, and 3,370 so far this decade among boys. In our records it goes to boys about 20,100 to 390 girls, beside Peter himself at about 584,900 boys. A rock, a plowman, a surname, a first name again: few names have made the round trip so completely and arrived sounding this sharp.
Pierce around the world
One shared root links 6 names across 4 languages.
Shared root: from Greek petros "rock", translating the Aramaic byname Kepha; the European forms descend from Latin Petrus
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Pierce peaked in the 2010s.
When you meet Pierce
Most people given the name Pierce in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Pierce deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Pierce 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 Pierce fits with your family’s names and surname.
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