Celestial names: written in the stars

Before the names

Here are the sky-borrowed names with real momentum, from Luna near the top of the charts to quietly glowing Lyra.

The speed of this theme is unlike anything else in the records. Luna reached the girls' top-10 in 2022; Nova's best year was 2021; Aurora and Atlas both stand at the highest ranks ever recorded for them this year. A generation ago, none of these names stood anywhere near the top of the charts.

New-sounding is not the same as new, though. Luna has been in the US records since they began in 1880, and Estelle — Stella's formal cousin, now returning — peaked back in 1911. The sky was a naming source a century ago too; the current wave is a rediscovery moving at modern speed.

Read the directions carefully, because the leaders have already crested: Luna peaked in 2022 and Nova in 2021, and both have eased since. The names still climbing are the quieter ones — Celeste at its best rank ever, with Lyra, Selene and Soleil still far from crowded. On this list more than most, the front of the wave and the back of it look very different.

The sky skews to the girls' side — fifteen girls' names chart here against four for boys — but the boys' entries are strong ones: Atlas sits at #75 and rising, with Orion holding steady behind it. For a boys' list built on the same instinct, the hero-and-god-names guide is the companion page.