Citlali
Feminine · “star”
Citlali is the Nahuatl word for star, carried into the present by families in Mexico and the United States who reached back past Spanish for a name. It moves in even syllables — see-TLAH-lee — with that soft central tl that Nahuatl gave to words English already borrowed, like chocolate and tomato. Rare enough to need spelling out, familiar enough in Southern California and Texas that plenty of people will know it on sight.
How old is the name Citlali?
Citlali first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Citlali alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 4,500 people named Citlali are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Citlali most popular?
Citlali peaked in 2005, reaching #914 nationally. Today it ranks #1380, 466 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Citlali appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Citlalin to Citlali
The story of Citlali
Nahuatl was the language of the Mexica and is still spoken by well over a million people in central Mexico. Citlalli, 'star', belongs to a set of Nahuatl words that were used as personal names before the Spanish conquest and returned to use in the twentieth century, when Mexican families took up indigenous names — Xóchitl, Itzel, Citlali — alongside the saints' names of the colonial centuries. It reached United States birth records through Mexican-American families, which is why it is best established in California, Texas and Illinois. The double-l spelling Citlalli stays closest to classical Nahuatl orthography; Citlali is the trimmer form that Spanish spelling habits produced.
Meaning
star
From Nahuatl citlalli (also written citlalin), 'star'. The Spanish equivalent, Estrella, is a translation rather than a form of the same name.
How the name formed
- Citlalin
- Citlalli
- Citlali
Related forms: Citlalli · Citlalin · Citlaly · Citlalmina
Pronouncing Citlali
see-TLAH-lee
Stress the middle syllable. The tl is one sound in Nahuatl and sits comfortably between vowels here, so English speakers manage it without much trouble. Some families say sit-LAH-lee; both are heard in the US.
Nicknames for Citlali
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2005272 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #914reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- +20.5%159 in 2025, from 132
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.
Citlali in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Citlalli in Nahuatl — spelling variant
- Citlalin in Classical Nahuatl — same name
- Citlaly in Spanish — spelling variant
- Citlalmina in Nahuatl — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Citlalis among us
people named Citlali are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 10,109 born in 2025 was named Citlali
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Citlali
- #1380
- Citlali on the 2025 chart
- #735
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Citlali went to 159 girls in 2025, but Citlaly and Citlalli are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 227, which makes it the 735th most-given girls’ name of the year — 645 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,080 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 10,109 for Citlali 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 Shaneka test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Citlali's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shaneka climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shaneka's path sketches the road Citlali is walking now.
Citlali 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 Citlali is headed
Citlali looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% 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.
Citlali beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Citlali in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A clear, settled meaning in a language still spoken today — no competing theories to explain.
- Ready-made short forms: Lali, Citla, and the Spanish diminutive Citlalita.
- Spells and sounds nearly the same in Spanish and English, which matters in bilingual families.
- Well established in California, Texas and Illinois, so it will be recognized rather than puzzled over in many places.
- Three spellings circulate — Citlali, Citlalli and Citlaly — so she will be asked which one, and forms will sometimes come back wrong.
- Outside communities where Nahuatl names are familiar, expect to say it twice and explain the tl. The good news is that it is phonetic once heard.
- She is unlikely to meet another Citlali in school. That is a pleasure for some children and a small burden for others, depending on the child.
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What they receive
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Citlali
Feminine · #1380 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Citlalis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Citlali are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Citlali?
- Citlali is the most-used spelling in US records — 159 of the 227 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Citlaly and Citlalli.
- How popular is the name Citlali in 2025?
- Citlali ranks #1380 among US girl names in 2025, with 159 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Citlali?
- About 1 in every 10,109 US girls born in 2025 was named Citlali — 159 in all.
- Will my child share the name Citlali with classmates?
- Citlali will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Citlali
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carsyn#1380 · Arwen#1382 · Amilia#1382 · Letty#1382 · Dottie#1382 · True#1382 · Alitzel#1382 · Keylani#1373
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Citlali? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Citlali and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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