Christopher
Feminine · “Christ-bearer”
Christopher is given to boys far more often — 2,069,596 boys against 9,507 girls since 1880. See Christopher as a boy name
Christopher is a job description. The Greek joins the name of Christ to a verb meaning to carry, so the name says the one who carries Christ — and it was probably meant inwardly, as a description of a believer, before anyone told a story about a man carrying a child across a river. The story came second and swallowed the name.
How old is the name Christopher?
Christopher first appears in US birth records in 1938 — 87 years ago. The typical Christopher alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 9,000 people named Christopher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Christopher most popular?
Christopher peaked in 1983, reaching #476 nationally. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Christophoros to Christopher
The story of Christopher
The legend is one of the best known in Europe. A giant of a man looking for the greatest master to serve is told to carry travelers across a river; a child asks to be carried, grows unbearably heavy midstream, and turns out to be Christ carrying the weight of the world. It is a story built to explain a name, and it made Christopher the patron of travelers — which is why his medal has been in more cars and pockets than any other. The Catholic church removed his feast from the universal calendar in the nineteen-sixties on the grounds that almost nothing about him is historically attested. The medals did not go anywhere.
Meaning
Christ-bearer
Greek Christophoros joins Christos, the anointed one — itself a translation of the Hebrew word behind Messiah — with pherein, to carry or bear. The same verb ends Theophorus and gives English words about carrying. The meaning is not disputed. What is worth separating is the sense: early Christians used bearer figuratively, of someone who carried the faith within them, and the literal reading is what generated the legend rather than the other way around.
How the name formed
- Christophoros
- Christopherus
- Christopher
Related forms: Cristóbal · Cristoforo · Christophe · Christoph · Krzysztof · Khristofor
Pronouncing Christopher
KRIS-tuh-fur
KRIS-tuh-fur, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced almost to nothing. The ch is a Greek chi and has always been said as a k in English. Polish rebuilds the whole thing around its own consonants and produces something an English speaker would not recognize on paper.
Nicknames for Christopher
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
- 1938
- Most girls named
- 1983418 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #476reached in 1983
- Change vs 2021
- −45.5%6 in 2023, from 11
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.
Christopher in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cristóbal in Spanish — same name
- Cristoforo in Italian — same name
- Christophe in French — same name
- Christoph in German — same name
- Krzysztof in Polish — same name
- Khristofor in Russian — same name
Christophers among us
people named Christopher 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
Christopher 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 vivid, specific and comes with one of the best stories attached to any name.
- Chris, Kit and Topher are three genuinely different short forms in three different registers.
- Every European language has a version, so it needs no translation anywhere.
- It has been in continuous English use since the Middle Ages and does not belong to one decade.
- Chris arrives immediately and is shared with Christine and Christina, so it settles nothing about who is being called.
- A great many people already carry it, and a Christopher will rarely be the only one in a room over a lifetime.
- The name is unmistakably Christian in origin, which for some families is the point and for others is a history they are not part of.
- This spelling is recorded for girls too, though so rarely that a girl named Christopher will be read as a boy on every form; Christiana carries related sound without that.
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What they receive
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Christopher
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Christophers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,000 people named Christopher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Christopher in 2025?
- Christopher is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Christopher with classmates?
- Christopher will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Christopher? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Christopher and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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