A biblical Hebrew name meaning 'breach' or 'bursting forth,' also common as a Spanish surname.
Perez is one of the oldest names in recorded human culture, rooted in the Hebrew word "peretz" — meaning a breach, a breaking-through, or a bursting forth. In the Book of Genesis, Perez was born to Judah and Tamar in a moment of dramatic precedence: his twin Zerah had begun to emerge first, but Perez broke through ahead, and the midwife declared, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" — giving him his name.
This origin myth imbues the name with an energy of urgency, of arriving first against odds, of making one's own way. Through Perez's lineage in the Hebrew scriptures runs the ancestry of King David and, in Christian tradition, of Jesus himself — making it one of the most genealogically consequential names in Western religious history. The name traveled into Spanish as both a surname ("Pérez," son of Pedro) and, more rarely, as a given name, carried across the Mediterranean world by Sephardic Jewish communities after the Reconquista.
In Latin America and Spain, Pérez became one of the most common surnames, carried by millions. As a given name in modern usage, Perez has a bold, unconventional energy — the kind parents choose when they want a name with deep roots but zero familiarity fatigue. It sits at the intersection of Hebrew scripture, Spanish heritage, and contemporary cool, equally at home in a synagogue, a church, or a Brooklyn coffee shop.