Primrose
Primrose was given to 69 girls in 2025, #2,561 among girls’ names; 1,033 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Primrose by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Primrose mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Primrose is “a female given name from English.” Its etymology gives the senses “wood, tree” (*prenn) and “moor, heath” (*rros).
The surname derives from a place name in Fife, Scotland; Watson (1926) derived this from Pictish/Proto-Brythonic *prenn (“wood, tree”) + *rros (“moor, heath”). Taylor instead argued for Scottish Gaelic prím (“first”) + ros (“promontory”). Changed by folk etymology because of phonetic resemblance to primrose. The given name is one of the 19th-century flower names.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Primrose?
#2,561 among girls’ names, 2025
Primrose rose from #3,245 in 2015 to #2,561 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 28.6 to 42.9 per million.
93 babies in 2021, the peak
Primrose peaked in 2021, when 93 girls were given it, #2,068 among girls’ names. The 69 births of 2025 are 74% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 69 | #2,561 | 42.9 |
| 2024 | 91 | #2,115 | 56.2 |
| 2023 | 91 | #2,120 | 56.7 |
| 2022 | 88 | #2,170 | 53.7 |
| 2021 | 93 | #2,068 | 56.7 |
| 2020 | 85 | #2,147 | 52.6 |
| 2019 | 87 | #2,151 | 51.8 |
| 2018 | 77 | #2,380 | 45.3 |
| 2017 | 59 | #2,865 | 34.2 |
| 2016 | 59 | #2,895 | 33.3 |
Every recorded year (28)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 51 | #3,245 | 28.6 |
| 2014 | 42 | #3,701 | 23.5 |
| 2013 | 35 | #4,222 | 19.9 |
| 2012 | 17 | #7,382 | 9.7 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,781 | 3.0 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,129 | 4.1 |
| 1960 | 5 | #7,080 | 2.5 |
| 1940 | 7 | #3,774 | 6.1 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,949 | 4.7 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,838 | 4.7 |
| 1930 | 9 | #3,274 | 8.0 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,356 | 5.6 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,899 | 6.6 |
| 1921 | 10 | #3,353 | 8.1 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,610 | 4.2 |
| 1917 | 7 | #4,014 | 6.5 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,821 | 5.1 |
| 1914 | 5 | #4,080 | 6.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Primrose a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Primrose has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 28 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Primrose: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Primrose, and how old are they?
An estimated 958 Americans named Primrose and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 9. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 765 people named Primrose (756 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 472 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Primrose
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Primrose and names like it
- Compare Primrose and CataleyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sPrimrose peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Primrose since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Primrose: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Primrose.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Primrose alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.