Prades was a name for someone who lived in the modern administrative departments of Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme. While the old provinces were divided into the current "departments" in 1790, almost all of the French refer to themselves as if they were still resident in the medieval province instead of the current department.

The oldest historical mention of the name Prades appears in the Gellone cartulary in 804 under the name of villa Pratis. However, the oldest human occupation of the village dates back to the Late Neolithic period (around 3,000 BC), as shown by the material discovered: carved flints, ceramics and polished bone tools.