Given name & surname
Pericles
“one who is in excess of glory”
Pericles is used as a given name and a surname. One Greek interpretation is “one who is in excess of glory.”
Original GreekΠερικλής
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Greek interpretation is “one who is in excess of glory.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Greek.
How it developed
In English usage, Pericles developed from Περικλῆς.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1921. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Pericles through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 86
- 86 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1965
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #13,399 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 13,399 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 8 in 1965. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 309 as a first name in 2020; 403 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Pericles’s family of names
In English usage, Pericles developed from the Ancient Greek form Περικλῆς. Pericles has a related form in Periclees. Pericles has a related form in Periclez.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 11
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Perrydezvariant
- Peryclezvariant
- Perriclezvariant
- Periclezvariant
- Perrycleesvariant
- Perycleesvariant
- Perricleesvariant
- Pericleesvariant
Show 3 moreShow fewer
Spellings & scripts 3
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Pericles
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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