Percival
2025 SSA
About Percival
There are several Percivals scattered through the Harry Potter series, which might help transform the old-fangled, fussy image it has accrued. Actually, the original Percival was the one perfectly pure Knight of the Round Table, a worthy hero. The name was invented in the twelfth century by a poet named Chretien de Troyes, for his ideal knight in the poem Percevale, a Knight of King Arthur.
Percival is found in other forms of literature as well, including Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, and Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" contains a section devoted to Sir Percival. Wagner transformed the name to Parsifal for his opera.
Percy, which seems like a nickname for Percival but is really a stand-alone Norman place name, is beginning to attract some favorable attention from cutting-edge namers.
Pronounced PER-sih-val.
As of October 2026, Percival ranked #1536 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #744 in 1886, Nameberry popularity #496.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | #3,136 | 38 | 21.2 |
| 2020 | #2,720 | 46 | 26.7 |
| 2021 | #2,762 | 46 | 26.3 |
| 2022 | #2,640 | 51 | 29.2 |
| 2023 | #2,265 | 63 | 36.8 |
| 2024 | #1,768 | 93 | 54 |
| 2025 | #1,536 | 113 | 66.2 |
World rankings
Similar names
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Percival on lists
Famous Percivals
- Percival Lawrence Lowell
American businessman and astronomer
- Percival Everett
American novelist
- Percival Green Spencer
English balloonist
- Percival Leitch Hussey
Australian cricketer
- Percival Drayton
U.S. Navy captain
- William Percival "Percy" Harvin
American football player
- Troy Percival
American baseball player
- Neil Percival Young
Canadian singer,songwriter
- Percival Serle
Australian biographer
Percival in pop culture
- Percival
ocelot in Achievement Hunter's "Let's Play Minecraft" series
- Sir Percival
legendary Knight of the Round Table
- Sir Percival Blakeney
main character in the "Scarlet Pimpernel" series
- Sir Percival Glyde
character in "The Woman in White" (1860) by Wilkie Collins
- Percival Ignatius "Percy" Weasley
character in the Harry Potter series
- Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
character in the Harry Potter series and son of Percival Dumbledore
- Percival Pratt
wizard poet in the Harry Potter series
- Percival Graves
character in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
- Percival Spence Parks
character in video game series "Resident Evil"
- Percival "Perry" Cox
doctor on the TV show "Scrubs"
- Percival Dalton
character on TV's "Little House on the Prairie"
- Percival Wemys Madison
character in book/movie "Lord of the Flies"
- Percival C. McLeach
villain in Disney's "The Rescuers Down Under"
- Mr Percival
pelican in Australian movie "Storm Boy"
- Percival Pettigrew Pennington Pitt
character in Jenny Nimmo's "The Children of the Red King" series
- Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III "Percy"
a character in the Dungeons and Dragons series Critical Role
- Charles Percival St. Cloud
main character in movie "Charlie St. Cloud"
- Percival
Polish folk band
- Percival
British aircraft company