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Celestial vs Celia

American parents have registered 56,716 Celias since 1880, against 605 Celestials. Celia is still ahead, with 351 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Celestial against Celia, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Celestial Celia

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Celia has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1998, when Celestial had 27 and Celia had 384.

Side by side

  Celestial Celia
Total US births 60556,716
Most in one year 27853
Babies in 2025 12351
Estimated living today 58030,000
Median age today 2441
Peak year 19981915
Best rank 4,142nd girls195th girls
Rank in 2025 8,362nd774th
First recorded 19041880
Girls / boys 605 / 056,642 / 74

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Celias alive today are over 41; half the Celestials are over 24. That is 17 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Celestial and Celia.