Calixto
Masculine · “most beautiful”
Calixto is Greek for the most beautiful, in the superlative: not beautiful but the most so. Three popes carried the Latin form, and the earliest of them had been a slave and a convict before he was bishop of Rome, which is one of the more unlikely careers in the record.
How old is the name Calixto?
Calixto first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Calixto alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 500 people named Calixto are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Calixto most popular?
Calixto peaked in 1962, reaching #2364 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 2,493 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kallistos to Calixto
The story of Calixto
Callistus I was bishop of Rome in the early third century and gave his name to one of the great catacombs on the Appian Way, where a long row of third-century popes was buried. Two later popes took the name, one of them a Spaniard from Valencia, which fixed Calixto firmly in Iberian use. It spread through Spain and Latin America, particularly Cuba, Mexico and the Philippines, and came to American records with families from those places.
Meaning
most beautiful
Greek kallistos, the superlative of kalos, beautiful or good. Latin wrote it Callistus and Calixtus, and Spanish took the second spelling.
How the name formed
- kallistos
- Callistus
- Calixtus
- Calixto
Related forms: Callisto · Calixte · Calisto · Κάλλιστος
Pronouncing Calixto
kah-LEEKS-toh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, the x said as ks. Italian and French move the weight around slightly but the shape is the same.
Nicknames for Calixto
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 202520 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2364reached in 1962
- Change vs 2024
- +5.3%20 in 2025, from 19
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.
Calixto in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Callisto in Italian — same name
- Calixte in French — same name
- Calisto in Portuguese — same name
- Κάλλιστος in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Calixtos among us
people named Calixto are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Calixto
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 Kelso test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Calixto's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kelso climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kelso's path sketches the road Calixto is walking now.
Calixto 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
Calixto beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Calixto in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a superlative and can be stated in three words.
- Calix and Cali are ready short forms, and the first is a name in its own right now.
- It carries a documented papal history running back to the third century.
- The x in the middle makes the spelling harder to guess from hearing.
- Callisto with two l is the Italian spelling and also a moon of Jupiter, so the two get confused.
- It sounds of an earlier generation in Spanish, which is heritage to some families and age to others.
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What they receive
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Calixto
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Calixtos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Calixto are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Calixto in 2025?
- Calixto ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Calixto?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Calixto — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Calixto with classmates?
- Calixto will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Calixto
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Calixto? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Calixto and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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