Angelica
Feminine · Greek roots · “angelic”
Angelica is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 93,217 girls against 321 boys since 1880.
Angelica is the Latin word for "angelic" used as a name, and it has been read aloud in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English for centuries without needing translation. Ariosto gave it to the princess at the center of his epic *Orlando Furioso* in the sixteenth century, and herbalists gave it to a tall flowering plant they valued as medicine. Four syllables that land softly, with the stress in the middle: an-JEL-ih-kuh.
How old is the name Angelica?
Angelica first appears in US birth records in 1892 — 133 years ago. The typical Angelica alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 90,500 people named Angelica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Angelica most popular?
Angelica peaked in 1996, reaching #97 nationally. Today it ranks #707, 610 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Where it comes from
From angelos (Greek) to Angelica
The story of Angelica
The root is Greek angelos, "messenger," which the Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible used for the messengers of God and which passed into Latin as angelus. From it came the adjective angelicus, "angelic," and its feminine form angelica, which medieval Europe used both as a woman's name and as the name of a tall umbelliferous plant, Angelica archangelica, grown for medicine and later candied for cakes. Ludovico Ariosto made it famous in verse: the Angelica of *Orlando Furioso*, published in the early sixteenth century, is the princess whose flight drives much of the poem. From Italy the name spread west and north, and it reached American records in the late nineteenth century, arriving in strength again a century later through Spanish-speaking families who had never stopped using Angélica.
Meaning
angelic, of the angels
From Latin angelicus, itself from Greek angelikos and angelos, "messenger" — the word that became "angel."
How the name formed
- angelosGreek
- angelicusLatin
- AngelicaItalian
- Angelica
Related forms: Angélica · Angélica · Angelica · Angélique · Angelika · Anzhelika
Pronouncing Angelica
an-JEL-ih-kuh
Spanish and Portuguese speakers say an-HEH-lee-kah, with the j-sound replaced by a breathy h and the stress moved to the second syllable. Both are correct for their language; a family that uses both will want to decide early which one strangers get.
Nicknames for Angelica
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1892
- Most girls named
- 19953,357 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #97reached in 1996
- Change vs 2023
- −14.0%398 in 2025, from 463
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Angelica in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Angélica in Spanish — spelling variant
- Angélica in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Angelica in Italian — same name
- Angélique in French — related form
- Angelika in German — spelling variant
- Anzhelika in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Angelicas among us
people named Angelica are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,038 born in 2025 was named Angelica
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kristi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Angelica's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kristi climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kristi's path sketches the road Angelica is walking now.
Angelica is coming down from a big peak (#97 in 1996). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Angelica is headed
Angelica should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Angelica beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Angelica in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads and works in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German with only an accent mark changing — useful in a bilingual family.
- The meaning is not in dispute: Latin angelicus, "angelic." No competing theories to explain.
- Established short forms already exist, Angie above all, so the child inherits options rather than inventing them.
- Documented in English use since well before American records began, and carried by a heroine of Renaissance epic.
- The English and Spanish pronunciations differ sharply — an-JEL-ih-kuh against an-HEH-lee-kah — and Angelica will be asked to choose, or to correct people, fairly often.
- It sits close to Angela, Angelina and Angelique, and gets confused with all three. The spelling Anjelica also exists, so expect to spell it out.
- For people who watched cartoons in the 1990s, the name still calls up Angelica Pickles from Rugrats. That association fades with each cohort, but it is real for adults now in their thirties.
- The angel root gives it a mild religious color that some families welcome and others would rather not carry.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Angelica
Feminine · Greek roots · #707 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Angelicas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 90,500 people named Angelica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Angelica in 2025?
- Angelica ranks #707 among US girl names in 2025, with 398 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Angelica?
- About 1 in every 4,038 US girls born in 2025 was named Angelica — 398 in all.
- Will my child share the name Angelica with classmates?
- Angelica will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Angelica
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kennedi#707 · Alena#707 · Angie#705 · Drew#705 · Robin#704 · Jazmin#710 · Merritt#703 · Analia#711
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Angelica? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Angelica and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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