Christopher
Masculine · “Christ-bearer”
Christopher is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,069,596 boys against 9,507 girls since 1880. See Christopher as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Christopher alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 1,906,000 people named Christopher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Christopher most popular?
Christopher peaked in 1972, reaching #2 nationally. Today it ranks #68, 66 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
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.
Cultural footprint
Christopher Reeve (b. 1952) — Superman on screen — and a hero off it
Christopher Nolan (b. 1970) — Director of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight
Christopher Lee (b. 1922) — Cinema's great villain — Dracula and Saruman
Christopher Wren (b. 1632) — Rebuilt London's churches after the Great Fire
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 198460,021 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2reached in 1972
- Change vs 2022
- −15.0%4,748 in 2025, from 5,589
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Christophers among us
people named Christopher are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 360 born in 2025 was named Christopher
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 James test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Christopher's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: James climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and James's path sketches the road Christopher is walking now.
Christopher has held the top-100 across 8 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Christopher is headed
Christopher 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.
Christopher beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Christopher 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 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
Masculine · #68 in the U.S.
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 1,906,000 people named Christopher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Christopher in 2025?
- Christopher ranks #68 among US boy names in 2025, with 4,748 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Christopher?
- About 1 in every 360 US boys born in 2025 was named Christopher — 4,748 in all.
- Will my child share the name Christopher with classmates?
- Christopher will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Christopher
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Angel#67 · Lincoln#69 · Joshua#66 · Jayden#70 · Silas#71 · Nolan#65 · Brooks#64 · Enzo#72
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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