Christabel
Feminine · “Latin Christus and bellus”
Coleridge never finished Christabel. He wrote the first part in 1797, the second in 1800, promised three more and produced none, and the fragment he published in 1816 has been argued over ever since.
How old is the name Christabel?
Christabel first appears in US birth records in 1901 — 124 years ago. The typical Christabel alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Christabel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Christabel most popular?
Christabel peaked in 1901, reaching #1466 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,451 places below that high. See the whole 1901 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Christabel
Coleridge claimed in his preface that the poem's meter worked by counting accents rather than syllables, so that the lines vary in length but keep four beats, and he presented this as a new principle. It was not quite new and the poem is not quite regular, but the claim mattered: Byron, Scott and later prosodists took it up, and it fed into the nineteenth-century argument about English meter that eventually produced Hopkins's sprung rhythm. The poem itself, about a girl who brings a mysterious woman home, is unfinished in a way that has generated a very large critical literature. The name existed earlier in ballad and romance, and its second element is the Latin word for beautiful rather than the English bell.
Meaningscholars disagree
Latin Christus and bellus, fair Christ
Christabel is generally analyzed as Christ joined to the Latin bella, beautiful, and appears in medieval romance before Coleridge. Its exact formation is not documented. The American peak is 1901.
Pronouncing Christabel
KRIS-tuh-bel
Three syllables, stress on the first, with a secondary stress on the last.
Nicknames for Christabel
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
- 1901
- Most girls named
- 201434 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1466reached in 1901
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%8 in 2025, from 12
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.
Christabel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Christabelle in English — spelling variant
- Cristabel in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Christabels among us
people named Christabel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Christabel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Christabel 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
Christabel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Christabel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Belle, Chris and Christa are three short forms in three registers.
- The literary history is documented and substantial.
- Three syllables with a firm opening beat.
- Three syllables plus a surname makes a long full name.
- It reads as distinctly Victorian.
- The 1901 peak dates it to the turn of the century.
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What they receive
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Christabel
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Christabels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Christabel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Christabel in 2025?
- Christabel ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Christabel?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Christabel — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Christabel with classmates?
- Christabel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Christabel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Christabel? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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