Celeste
- Pronunciation
- [Ce-leste]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Heavenly.
- Origin
- French
About the Name Celeste
Celeste descends from the Latin caelestis meaning "heavenly" or "of the sky" — referring to the celestial realm of stars, planets, and divine beings in Roman religious thought. The name has been used continuously in French, Italian, and Spanish Catholic naming traditions for over a millennium.
Notable bearers include American writer Celeste Ng (born 1980, the iconic American novelist whose works Everything I Never Told You 2014 and Little Fires Everywhere 2017 made her one of the foundational early-21st-century American literary fiction figures); the fictional Celeste of HBO's Big Little Lies (2017–2019, played by Nicole Kidman); and the iconic French children's book character Queen Celeste of Jean de Brunhoff's Babar series (1931–present).
Celeste's American climb has been steady: the name climbed into the US top 200 girls' rank by 2014 and held the top 200 since. The name has been driven primarily by Italian-American, Spanish-American, and the broader American taste for elegant Latinate girls' names alongside Estelle and Adele. The name's appeal is its layered Latin-French-Catholic-celestial pedigree combined with two firm syllables — the in-built heavenly etymology, the strong Celeste Ng modern literary anchor, and the elegant French sophistication. The name reads as both classical-Latin and contemporary American. Common nicknames Cele (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Celie, and the rare Lestee each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Celeste, Celestia (alternate Latinate elaborate), and Celestina (Italian elaborate) have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Celeste (essentially identical across Italian/Spanish/Portuguese/French/English), Céleste (French original, with accent), Celestina (Italian elaborate), and the original Latin caelestis.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Celeste
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Celeste by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 1,662 girls named Celeste (girl rank #188 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Celeste Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Celeste the strongest states are California, District of Columbia, Nevada.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #181 | 1,858 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | #193 | 27 |
| 3 | Nevada | #220 | 117 |
| 4 | Texas | #232 | 1,361 |
| 5 | New Mexico | #240 | 59 |
| 6 | Arizona | #258 | 252 |
| 7 | Colorado | #296 | 181 |
| 8 | Idaho | #299 | 22 |
| 9 | Florida | #308 | 607 |
| 10 | Oregon | #327 | 113 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Celeste in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Celeste?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Celeste to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Celeste against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
Celeste Baby Name Ideas
- Best Middle Names for Sofia: Open Vowels, Clear Seams, and Full-Name Balance
- The Best Middle Names for Aria: Pairings That Give a Vowel-Rich Name a Clear Center
- The Best Middle Names for Scarlett: Pairings That Balance a Crisp Final T
- The Best Middle Names for Gianna: Pairings That Keep a Three-Syllable Name Light
- When a Baby's Initials Spell a Word: A Practical Test Before the Name Is Final
- The Best Middle Names for Eliana: Pairings That Give a Four-Syllable Name a Clear Landing
- Baby Names for Last Names With Final-Syllable Stress: Balancing the Full-Name Rhythm
- The Best Middle Names for Natalie: Pairings That Give a Three-Syllable Name a Clear Landing
- The Best Middle Names for Hannah: Pairings That Keep a Soft Ending Distinct
- How to Name a Younger Sibling When the Older Child Has an Unusually Distinctive Name
- Naming a Baby After Pregnancy Loss: Honoring the Past Without Assigning the New Child a Role
- The Best Middle Names for Abigail: Pairings That Balance the Full Name and the Nickname
- Baby Names for Last Names Starting With a Vowel: Making the Seam Audible
- Museum and Gallery Baby Names: Artistic Classics with Curator-Level Polish
- Astronomy Baby Names Beyond Luna: Starry Names with Real-Life Gravity
- Light Academia Baby Names: Warm, Bookish Names Bathed in Golden Light
- Dreamy Baby Names: Enchanting Choices for Your Little One
- 100 Exquisite Element-Inspired Boy and Girl Names
- Boy and Girl Names That Mean Night: A Global Journey Through Cultures and Languages
- Spiritual Baby Names: Choosing Names with Meaning and Connection