Pearl

Latin gem name
"pearl"

Pearl Origin and Meaning

The name Pearl is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "pearl".

Pearl, like Ruby, has begun to be polished up for a new generation of fashionable children after a century of jewelry box storage. The birthstone for the month of June, Pearl could also make a fresher middle name alternative to the overused Rose. Cool couple Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson named their daughter Pearl Minnie, followed by Jack Osbourne, and several celebs have put it in the middle spot, as in Busy Philipps's Cricket Pearl, Jake Owen's Olive Pearl and Caleb Followill's Dixie Pearl .

After being a Top 25 name in the late nineteenth century, Pearl went into a long slide, but is showing signs of a strong comeback -- it reentered the Top 1000 in 2010.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is the illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne, who gives her the name because she is 'her mother's only treasure.'

Pearl was also the alter ego name of Janis Joplin, tied to singer Pearl Bailey, and---hmm--the birth name of western writer Zane Gray.

Variations are PERLE and PERLA.

# 805 in the US

Pearl Rank in US Top 1000

# 284 on Nameberry

Pearl Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Pearl Popularity

Famous People Named Pearl

  • Pearl Sydenstricker Buck
    American novelist
  • Pearl Mae Bailey
    American actress and singer
  • Pearl Cleage
    American novelist
  • Pearl Lowe
    English singer,songwriter
  • Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie
    American novelist and dramatist under the pen name John Oliver Hobbes
  • Pearl Hart
    American Old West outlaw
  • Pearl Liaison
    stage name of Matthew James Lent, American drag queen of RuPaul's Drag Race season 7
  • Pearl Clementine Osbourne (b. 2012)
    daughter of TV personality Jack and Lisa Osbourne
  • Pearl Maria Aday
    American singer and daughter of singer Meat Loaf
  • Pearl Minnie Anderson (b. 2005)
    daughter of actress Maya Rudolph and director Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Pearl Ryder
    daughter of singer Shaun Ryder of Black Grape
  • Pearl
    daughter of YouTuber Louise Pentland and Liam O'Neill
  • (Pearl) Zane Grey
    male American novelist
  • Minnie Pearl
    stage name of American comedian Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon

Pearl in Pop Culture

  • Pearl Zhu
    character on TV's "The Vampire Diaries"
  • Pearl
    daughter of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"
  • Pearl
    Mr. Krabs' daughter on animated series "SpongeBob SquarePants"
  • Pearl
    character in song cycle Ghost Quartet
  • Pearl Gallagher
    character on TV's "Diff'rent Strokes"
  • Pearl Caraldo
    main character on TV's "Pearl"
  • The Pearl
    character in anime "One Piece"
  • Pearl
    late 14th,century Middle English poem
  • Pearl Fey
    character in video game "Ace Attorney"
  • Pearl Slattery
    character in "Redhill Rococo" by Shena Mackay
  • Pearl Cunningham
    character in Ray Lawler's "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll"
  • Pearl Shay
    character on TV's "227"
  • Pearl Forrester
    character on TV's "Mystery Science Theater 3000"
  • Pearl
    character on animated series "Steven Universe"
  • Pearl
    character in Disney's "The Little Mermaid"
  • Pearl
    character in Disney's "Home on the Range"
  • "The Pearl
    " short story by John Steinbeck
  • Pearl Jam
    American rock band
  • Pearl Harbor
    Hawaiian U.S. military base bombed in 1941 by Japan
  • Pearl
    drums manufacturer
  • Pearl
    main character in novel "My Sister Jodie"
  • Pearl
    main character in novel "The Year of The Rat"
  • Pearl Ada Lennox
    character in novel 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' by Kate Atkinson (twin sister of Ruby Lennox)
  • Grandma Pearl
    character in "Big Fat Liar"
  • Granny Pearl
    character in Nadia Aguiar's children's fantasy book series "Adventures in Tamarind"
  • Pearl
    character in Jenny Nimmo's "The Children of the Red King" series
  • Pearl Serpentine
    daughter of the Hydra in "Monster High" show and series (twin sister of Peri Serpentine)
  • Pearl
    a character from the video game Platoon 2
  • Pearl Littlefield
    main character of Ann M. Martin's "10 Rules for Living with My Sister" and "10 Good and Bad Things About My Life So Far"

Pearl in Nameberry Blog Posts