Celine
Feminine · “either "heavenly”
Celine is the English spelling of French Céline, a name shaped in Latin and worn smooth by centuries of French use. It ends on a long, clean syllable — leen — that carries across a room without being loud, and it has been shortened the same friendly way for generations. Anyone who listened to the radio in the late twentieth century has heard it sung across the world.
How old is the name Celine?
Celine first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Celine is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 17,500 people named Celine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Celine most popular?
Celine peaked in 2025, reaching #207 nationally. Today it ranks #207, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Celine appears on these lists:
- French names with effortless chic
- Names that work in English and French
- Names ending in -ine / -een
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From Caelinus to Celine
The story of Celine
The name grew out of Latin: the family name Caelinus and its feminine Caelina, connected to caelum, "sky." In France it became Céline and stayed in steady use there, helped along by its overlap with Marceline, which was often shortened the same way. English-speaking families borrowed it from French, and the accent generally fell away in American records, leaving the plain Celine. Its later reach in English owes a great deal to Céline Dion, whose voice carried the name into households far outside France.
Meaningscholars disagree
either "heavenly, of the sky" or a short form of Marceline
Two serious readings compete. One traces Céline to the Latin family name Caelina, from caelum, "sky, heaven" — the source of the "heavenly" reading you will see most often. The other treats it as a clipped form of Marceline (Marcellina), a diminutive built on the Roman name Marcus. Both were in real use in France, and the two lines have long since blurred into one name.
Cultural footprint
Céline Dion (b. 1968) — "My Heart Will Go On" powerhouse with five Grammys
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Caelinus
- Caelina
- Céline
- Celine
Related forms: Céline · Celina · Celina · Celina · Celina · Caelina
Pronouncing Celine
suh-LEEN
The common American reading puts the weight on the second syllable. French speakers say it closer to say-LEEN, and some families use SEH-leen. All three are heard, so it is worth deciding which one you will offer when introducing her.
Nicknames for Celine
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 20251,466 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #207reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +42.1%1,466 in 2025, from 1,032
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.
Celine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Céline in French — spelling variant
- Celina in Polish — related form
- Celina in Spanish — related form
- Celina in Italian — related form
- Celina in Portuguese — related form
- Caelina in Latin — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Celines among us
people named Celine are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,096 born in 2025 was named Celine
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 Dena test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Celine's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dena climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dena's path sketches the road Celine is walking now.
Celine is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Celine is headed
Celine looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 35% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Celine beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Celine in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognizable in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Polish, with a near-identical form in each — useful in a bilingual family.
- The spelling is already familiar to most English speakers, so it rarely needs to be spelled out letter by letter.
- A documented line back to Latin, with unbroken use in France for centuries.
- Several ready-made short forms — Cece, Lina, Celie — none of which need inventing.
- Works without the accent in English, so forms and email addresses cause no trouble.
- The association with one singer is strong and global. For many people the name arrives with her voice attached; that fades with time, but it will be mentioned.
- Celine is also a Paris fashion house, which means the name turns up on handbags and shop fronts as well as birth certificates.
- It sits close to Selena, Selina, Celina and Céline, so expect occasional misspellings and the odd corrected accent.
- The meaning is genuinely unsettled between "heavenly" and a short form of Marceline — worth knowing if you were counting on one clean answer to give relatives.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Celine to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Celine
Feminine · #207 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Celines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,500 people named Celine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Celine in 2025?
- Celine ranks #207 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,466 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Celine?
- About 1 in every 1,096 US girls born in 2025 was named Celine — 1,466 in all.
- Will my child share the name Celine with classmates?
- Celine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Celine
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jasmine#206 · Adaline#208 · Bailey#208 · Vera#205 · Myla#210 · Kylie#204 · Stevie#203 · Aitana#211
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Celine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Celine and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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