Aracelis
Feminine · “Latin "altar of heaven”
Aracelis is a church. Santa Maria in Aracoeli stands on the Capitoline hill in Rome, and its name — ara coeli, the altar of heaven — comes from a legend that Augustus saw a vision of the Virgin on that spot and raised an altar to her.
How old is the name Aracelis?
Aracelis first appears in US birth records in 1955 — 70 years ago. The typical Aracelis alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 1,100 people named Aracelis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aracelis most popular?
Aracelis peaked in 1960, reaching #2061 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 5,824 places below that high. See the whole 1960 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ara coeli to Aracelis
The story of Aracelis
The legend is medieval rather than ancient: it holds that the Tiburtine Sibyl showed Augustus a vision of the Virgin and Child and told him a greater king was coming, and that Augustus raised an altar on the Capitoline in response. The church built there was rebuilt by Franciscans in the thirteenth century and is reached by a very long flight of stairs; it holds the Santo Bambino, a wooden figure of the Christ child. The Marian title spread to Spain and from there to Latin America, and Araceli became an ordinary Spanish women's name. Aracelis is the Puerto Rican and Caribbean form; the American figures peak in 1960.
Meaning
Latin "altar of heaven"
From ara, an altar, plus coeli, of heaven — the genitive of caelum. The Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli takes its name from the phrase, and the Marian devotion attached to it produced the Spanish given names Araceli and Aracelis. The final s is a Spanish and Caribbean addition, on the pattern of Dolores and Mercedes.
How the name formed
- ara coeli
- Aracoeli
- Araceli
- Aracelis
Related forms: Araceli · Aracoeli
Pronouncing Aracelis
ah-rah-SEH-lees
Four syllables, stress on the third, with a tapped r and pure vowels. English speakers usually say ar-uh-SELL-iss, reducing the first two vowels.
Nicknames for Aracelis
Moderate
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
- 1955
- Most girls named
- 197135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2061reached in 1960
- Change vs 2024
- +116.7%13 in 2025, from 6
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.
Aracelis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Araceli in Spanish — spelling variant
- Aracoeli in Italian — related form
Araceliss among us
people named Aracelis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Aracelis
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 Allee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aracelis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Allee climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Allee's path sketches the road Aracelis is walking now.
Aracelis sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Aracelis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aracelis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, vivid and tied to a named church.
- Ara and Celi are natural short forms.
- It is established in Spain, Mexico and the Caribbean.
- Four syllables is long for American everyday use.
- Araceli without the s is the more common form.
- English speakers alter the vowels and the stress.
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What they receive
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Aracelis
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Araceliss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Aracelis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aracelis in 2025?
- Aracelis ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aracelis?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Aracelis — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aracelis with classmates?
- Aracelis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aracelis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aracelis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aracelis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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