Citlalli
Feminine · “star”
Citlalli is Nahuatl for star, and it is one of the clearest successes of a deliberate movement: Mexican families in the last fifty years reaching back past Spanish to the language that was spoken in the valley of Mexico before it arrived. The word is still living, in the mouths of a million and a half speakers.
How old is the name Citlalli?
Citlalli first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Citlalli alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 2,400 people named Citlalli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Citlalli most popular?
Citlalli peaked in 2001, reaching #609 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,378 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Where it comes from
From citlalli to Citlalli
The story of Citlalli
Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec empire and did not die with it: it is still spoken across central Mexico, and a great deal of its vocabulary went into Mexican Spanish and from there into English, in words like tomato, chocolate and avocado. From the middle of the twentieth century Mexican families began giving Nahuatl names deliberately, as an act of recovery: Citlalli, Xochitl, Itzel, Yaretzi. The double l is the standard Nahuatl spelling and is said as a single held l.
Meaning
star
Nahuatl citlalli, a star. The same word appears in the name of the highest mountain in Mexico, Citlaltepetl, the star mountain, and in the Nahuatl name for the Milky Way.
How the name formed
- citlalli
- Citlalli
Related forms: Citlali · Citlaly
Pronouncing Citlalli
see-TLAH-lee
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The tl is a single Nahuatl consonant that English does not have; saying it as a t followed by an l is close enough and is what Spanish speakers do.
Nicknames for Citlalli
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
- 1989
- Most girls named
- 2001413 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #609reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%26 in 2025, from 26
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.
Citlalli in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Citlali in Nahuatl — spelling variant
- Citlaly in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Citlallis among us
people named Citlalli are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Citlalli
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Citlalli
- #4987
- Citlalli on the 2025 chart
- #735
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Citlalli went to 26 girls in 2025, but Citlali and Citlaly 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 — 4,252 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,080 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,818 for Citlalli 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 Marianna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Citlalli's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marianna climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marianna's path sketches the road Citlalli is walking now.
Citlalli 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
Where Citlalli is headed
Citlalli should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Citlalli beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Citlalli in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single word that any child can be shown in the sky.
- It carries a living indigenous language rather than a reconstructed one.
- Lali is a warm short form that works in Spanish and English alike.
- Citlalli, Citlali and Citlaly are all in use, so the spelling will be asked for.
- The tl cluster is unfamiliar to English speakers and gets mangled at first.
- Outside Mexican communities the name is unknown and will be spelled out constantly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Citlalli to the vote.
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What they receive
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Citlalli
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Citlallis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Citlalli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Citlalli?
- Citlalli is one of 3 recorded spellings. Citlali is the more common one — 159 births in 2025 against 26 for Citlalli.
- How popular is the name Citlalli in 2025?
- Citlalli ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Citlalli?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Citlalli — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Citlalli with classmates?
- Citlalli will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Citlalli
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Citlalli? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Citlalli and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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