Araseli
Feminine · “Altar of heaven”
Araceli means altar of heaven, and it is a place before it is a person: a church on the Capitoline hill in Rome, at the top of a flight of a hundred and twenty-four marble steps, built where the Romans had a temple and where, according to legend, an emperor was shown a vision.
How old is the name Araseli?
Araseli first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Araseli alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,200 people named Araseli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Araseli most popular?
Araseli peaked in 1980, reaching #2128 nationally. See the whole 1980 chart.
Where it comes from
From ara caeli to Araseli
The story of Araseli
The hill the church stands on was the most important religious site in Rome for a thousand years before there were any churches on it, and it holds one of the best stories in the city's own account of itself. When the Gauls had taken the rest of Rome and were climbing the cliff at night to surprise the citadel, the geese kept in the temple of Juno there heard them and set up a noise that woke the garrison; the dogs, it is pointedly noted, had slept through it. Rome held the hill. Geese were fed at public expense afterwards and dogs were ritually punished once a year, which tells you something about how long the Romans held a grudge.
Meaning
Altar of heaven
Latin ara, an altar, and caeli, of the sky or heaven. It is a title of the Virgin taken from the church, in the same way that Loreto and Fatima are, so the name honors a devotion rather than describing a child. This spelling writes the c as an s, which in Spanish makes no audible difference.
How the name formed
- ara caeli
- Araceli
- Araseli
Related forms: Araceli · Aracoeli
Pronouncing Araseli
ah-rah-SEH-lee
Four syllables with the stress on the third. In most of Spain the c would be said with the tongue between the teeth and the s would not, so the two spellings differ there; across Latin America they are identical.
Nicknames for Araseli
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 198048 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2128reached in 1980
- Change vs 2016
- +33.3%8 in 2019, 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.
Araseli in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Araceli in Spanish — same name
- Aracoeli in Italian — related form
Araselis among us
people named Araseli are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Araseli sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is unusual, concrete and easy to give a child in three words.
- Ara and Celi are two short forms that sound nothing alike.
- It is read correctly at sight by any Spanish speaker.
- Araceli with a c is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected in Spanish as well as English.
- Four syllables is a long name for daily use and will be shortened by other people.
- English speakers will stress the wrong syllable on sight.
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Araseli
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Araselis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Araseli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Araseli in 2025?
- Araseli is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Araseli with classmates?
- Araseli will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Araseli? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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