Pericles as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Pericles

What is the meaning of the name Pericles ?

The baby name Pericles is a boy name , 3 syllables long and is pronounced PEHR-i-kleez.

Pericles is Ancient Greek, Latin in Origin.

Pericles is the Latinized English form of Ancient Greek Περικλῆς (Periklēs), the earliest attested form of the name in classical sources. It is a compound built from peri, around, about, or exceedingly, and kleos, fame, renown, glory; the final -ēs marks the masculine nominative shape familiar in Greek personal names. Taken literally, the compound expresses being encircled by renown or surpassingly glorious, a formation aligned with aristocratic Greek names that advertised honor and public reputation.

Its best-known bearer was Pericles of Athens, the fifth-century BCE statesman and general associated with the city’s democratic institutions, imperial policy, and Acropolis building program. Later transmission owed much to Greek historiography, Latin education, and Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre, a romance staged around 1608. Modern forms include Perikles, Modern Greek Periklis, Italian Pericle, and French Périclès. In English-speaking records the name is uncommon and usually signals classical learning rather than inherited local tradition.