Percival

Where Percival comes from

From Old French Perceval, name of a knight in a twelfth century Arthurian romance by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes. Shaped like Old French percier (“pierce”) + val (“valley”), but probably representing some Gaulish or Old Welsh name, possibly related to Welsh Peredur, from ber (“spear, lance”) (from Middle Welsh ber, from Proto-Brythonic *ber, from Proto-Celtic *beru (“spit”)) + dur (“hard metal, steel”) (see Latin durus). Cognate with German Parzival and Parsifal.
— Wiktionary's entry for Percival
  • Celtic
  • 3 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1855
    Percival Lowell born
    American astronomer
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #745 among boys — 7 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1886
    Peak, #694
    8 babies named Percival — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1887
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  5. 1956
    Percival Everett born
    American writer
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Celtic languages.
Namesakes
  • Percival Lowell · American astronomer, 1855–1916
  • Percival Everett · American writer, born 1956
  • Percival Davson · British fencer and tennis player, 1877–1959
  • Percival Proctor Baxter · American politician, 1876–1969
  • Percival Molson · Canadian ice hockey player, 1880–1917

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.