Given name & surname
Prospero
“a fortunate man”
Prospero combines a Romance-language name tradition with the magician of The Tempest.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Prospero is a form of Prosper. One Latin interpretation is “a fortunate man.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Prospero is a form of Prosper. An origin associated with Prosper is Latin.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
In Filipino usage, Prospero developed from Próspero.
The story
Shakespeare’s Prospero is both a magician and the Duke of Milan. The character gave English-speaking audiences a literary connection with a form of Prosper already used in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Prospero through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 71
- 71 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1928
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1975. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 8 in 1928. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 618 as a first name in 2020; 482 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.
Prospero’s family of names
Prospero shares a linguistic root with Prosper. In Filipino usage, Prospero was borrowed from the Spanish form Próspero. Prospero has a related form in Prosper.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Prospero
- Prospero AlpiniVenetian physician and botanist (1553-1616)
- Prospero FontanaItalian painter (1512-1597)
- Prospero ColonnaItalian condottiero (1452-1523)
- Prospero IntorcettaItalian Jesuit missionary (1626–1696)1625–1696
- Prospero ColonnaCatholic cardinal1410–1463
- Prospero CateriniCatholic cardinal (1795-1881)
- Prospero SantacroceItalian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal1514–1589
- Prospero Colonna di SciarraCatholic cardinal1707–1765
- Prospero Centurione Fattinantipolitician1510–1581
Characters named Prospero: Prospero (Shakespeare's The Tempest).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Prospero, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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“traveler of the road” · “a lyric poem”
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Orlan
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Orvill
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Orvil
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Humphrey
“a peaceful warrior”
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Roley
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Rollan
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>99% boys