Celina
Feminine
Celina is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,295 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Celina has been on American birth records since national counting began, quietly and without a break, carried by Polish, Spanish, Portuguese and French-speaking families along the way. It is three easy syllables that land on the middle one, and it folds down to Lina or CeCe without any effort. Rare enough now that a child would likely be the only one in a school, familiar enough that nobody asks what it is.
How old is the name Celina?
Celina was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Celina alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 15,000 people named Celina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Celina most popular?
Celina peaked in 1994, reaching #423 nationally. Today it ranks #827, 404 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Caelius to Celina
The story of Celina
The Roman name Caelius produced a feminine Caelina, which survived into medieval Christian use in France as Céline — the name of Saint Céline, remembered as the mother of Remigius of Reims, the bishop who baptized Clovis. From French it spread as Celina into Polish, Spanish and Portuguese, each language keeping the spelling and shifting only the vowels. It reached the United States along several immigrant routes at once, which is why it has never belonged to one community here, and why its strongest states today are the ones with the deepest Spanish-speaking and immigrant histories.
Meaningscholars disagree
'heavenly' or 'of the sky' by the Latin line; 'moon' by the Greek one
Two roads meet at this spelling. The Latin one runs through Caelina, a feminine of the Roman family name Caelius, usually tied to caelum, 'sky' or 'heaven'. The Greek one runs through Selene, goddess of the moon, giving Selina — and because C before e is soft in English, Celina and Selina have long been read as the same name. Neither reading cancels the other; both are genuinely in use.
How the name formed
- Caelius
- Caelina
- Céline
- Celina
Related forms: Céline · Celina · Celina · Celina · Selina · Celia
Pronouncing Celina
suh-LEE-nuh
The C is soft, so it sounds like an S. Spanish and Polish speakers say it seh-LEE-nah with a crisper first vowel. A minority of English speakers say suh-LY-nuh, following the older Selina; you will want to state your preference once and then let it settle.
Nicknames for Celina
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1995556 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #423reached in 1994
- Change vs 2022
- +38.8%329 in 2025, from 237
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.
Celina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Céline in French — same name
- Celina in Polish — same name
- Celina in Spanish — same name
- Celina in Portuguese — same name
- Selina in English — related form
- Celia in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Celinas among us
people named Celina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,885 born in 2025 was named Celina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Celina
- #827
- Celina on the 2025 chart
- #515
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Celina went to 329 girls in 2025, but Selina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 505, which makes it the 515th most-given girls’ name of the year — 312 places above the chart.
- Celina329
- Selina176
About 1 girl in 3,183 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,885 for Celina itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Verona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Celina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Verona climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Verona's path sketches the road Celina is walking now.
Celina is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Celina is headed
Celina 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.
Celina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Celina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish alike — no accents, no silent letters.
- An unbroken presence in American records from the earliest years of national counting to now, so it has never needed reintroducing.
- Ready-made short forms already in circulation: Lina, CeCe, Celie.
- Travels across at least four languages with the spelling intact, which is rare for a name this soft-sounding.
- Celina, Selina, Selena and Céline are four different names that sound nearly identical. Expect to spell it aloud fairly often, and expect mail addressed to Selena.
- The pronunciation is not fully settled between suh-LEE-nuh and suh-LY-nuh, and the Spanish seh-LEE-nah differs again. All are legitimate; a child will simply learn to correct people gently.
- It is uncommon enough that most classrooms will hold only one — a real advantage for some families, and something to weigh if you would rather a name that needs no explaining at all.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Celina
Feminine · #827 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Celinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,000 people named Celina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Celina?
- Celina is the most-used spelling in US records — 329 of the 505 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Selina.
- How popular is the name Celina in 2025?
- Celina ranks #827 among US girl names in 2025, with 329 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Celina?
- About 1 in every 4,885 US girls born in 2025 was named Celina — 329 in all.
- Will my child share the name Celina with classmates?
- Celina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Celina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aila#827 · Kyra#827 · Layan#827 · Amelie#827 · Aliya#823 · Promise#823 · Jessie#823 · Nyomi#823
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Celina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Celina and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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