Priscilla is an English female given name adopted from the Roman Prisca, derived from the Latin priscus. One suggestion is that it is intended to bestow long life on the bearer.
It appears in the New Testament of the Christian Bible variously as Priscilla and Prisca, a female leader in the early Church. The name appears in English literature in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1596) and was adopted as an English name by the Puritans in the 17th century. The use of the name began to decline during the 1960s, possibly because of an association with the slang term prissy, in the sense of meaning prim or prudish.
Diminutive forms of the name include Lily, Cilla, Pris, Prissy, Prisk, Pru/Prue and Scilla.
Priscilla may refer to:
Priscilla, an early Christian of the Christian New Testament and companion to St. Paul; see Priscilla and AquilaPriscilla (Brazilian singer) (born 1990), Brazilian singer and songwriterPriscilla Betti (born 1989), French singer and actressPriscilla Ahn, singerPriscilla Alden (c. 1602-c. c. 1680), member of Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony, wife of John AldenPriscilla Barnes (born 1955), American actressPriscilla Bertie, 21st Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (1761–1828)Priscilla Chan (singer) (born 1965), singer from Hong KongPriscilla Chan (philanthropist) (born 1985), philanthropist and wife of Facebook CEO Mark ZuckerburgPriscilla Hill (born 1960), American retired figure skaterPriscilla Horton (1818–1895), English singer and actressPriscilla Kemble (1756–1845), English actressPriscilla Lane (1915–1995), of the singing Lane SistersPriscilla Leung (born 1961), Hong Kong legislator, barrister and associate professorPriscilla Lopez (born 1948), American singer, dancer and actressPriscilla Lopes-Schliep (born 1982), Canadian track and field hurdlerPriscilla Martel (born 1956), American chef, food writer and consultantPriscilla Nzimiro (born 1923), physician from NigeriaPriscilla Owen (born 1954), United States federal judge for the Fifth CircuitPriscilla Pointer (born 1924), American actress and mother of actress Amy IrvingPriscilla Presley (born 1945), American actress and businesswoman and ex-wife of Elvis PresleyPriscilla Cooper Tyler (1816–1889), former acting First Lady of the United States, the daughter-in-law of President John TylerPriscilla J. Smith, American Lawyer and ActivistPriscilla Wakefield (1751–1832), English Quaker educational writer and philanthropistPriscilla Welch (born 1944), British marathon runnerPrisca may refer to:
Prisca (empress) (d. 315), Roman empress, wife of Diocletian and mother of Valeria GaleriaPrisca (Prophet) (late 2nd century), Founding leader and prophet of MontanismSaint Prisca (late 1st century), Roman Catholic martyr and saint