From Greek myth, the name is from *Prometheus* meaning 'forethought'; the Titan who gave fire to humanity.
Prometheus is one of the great names of Western civilization, a word that has meant audacity, suffering, and the transformative gift of knowledge for nearly three thousand years. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan — not an Olympian god but a being older and wilder — who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, teaching them the arts of civilization. His name is typically parsed as deriving from the Greek pro (before) and manthanein (to learn), meaning "forethought."
His brother Epimetheus, "afterthought," was his eternal counterpart. Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock where an eagle devoured his liver each day, only for it to regenerate each night — an eternal torture for the ultimate act of defiance. The literary tradition that flows from this myth is immense.
Aeschylus wrote Prometheus Bound, one of the oldest surviving Greek tragedies. Percy Bysshe Shelley reimagined him in Prometheus Unbound as the archetype of revolutionary liberation. Mary Shelley subtitled her novel Frankenstein "The Modern Prometheus," identifying the scientist who creates life as the myth's true heir.
Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, and countless other writers have returned to Prometheus as the emblem of human striving against inhuman limits. As a given name, Prometheus is extraordinarily rare — its weight is enormous, its associations inescapable. To name a child Prometheus is to make a statement about heroic defiance, the cost of vision, and the dignity of the outcast who suffers for the good of others. It is a name for parents who are not afraid of mythology wearing a school uniform.