The surname Percival
A Welsh patronymic surname, carried by 3,317 people in the United States.
Pronounced /ˈpɜː(ɹ)sɪvəl/ 3 syllables Soundex P621 Also a first name
Origin
Welsh origin
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.
Percival is a patronymic surname: formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.
One of 60 Welsh surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 3,317 people named Percival in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 93,080 Americans. That is up 5.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 3,147.
Who is named Percival
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
85% of people named Percival identified as white (not Hispanic), 8.3% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 85%
- Black (not Hispanic) 8.3%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.3%
- Two or more races 1.5%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 1.2%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
Famous Percivals
3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Arthur PercivalBritish army officer in the First and Second World Wars, 1887–1966
- Lance PercivalBritish actor and comedian (1933-2015)
- Troy PercivalAmerican baseball player, born 1969
Notable Percivals come mostly from Malaysia (1), the United Kingdom (1) and the United States (1).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Variant spellings
- Pursifull
Percival has the Soundex code P621, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code P621.
Other Welsh surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Percival come 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,…
- How common is the surname Percival?
- 3,317 people in the United States had the surname Percival in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 93,080 Americans. It ranked 9,767th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Percival?
- In the 2010 Census, 85% of people named Percival identified as white (not Hispanic), and 8.3% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Percival?
- Arthur Percival, British army officer in the First and Second World Wars, followed by Lance Percival.
- Where is the surname Percival most common?
- Wikidata records people named Percival in Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- How do you pronounce Percival?
- Percival is /ˈpɜː(ɹ)sɪvəl/, 3 syllables.
- What type of surname is Percival?
- Percival is a patronymic surname, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.
- Is the surname Percival getting more or less common?
- More common. 3,147 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 3,317 in 2010, up 5.4%.
- What are other spellings of Percival?
- Pursifull.
- Is Percival also a first name?
- Yes. Percival is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.