Citlaly
Feminine · “star”
Citlaly is Nahuatl for a star, and it is one of the indigenous Mexican names that families have taken up in the last few decades in place of the Spanish stock.
How old is the name Citlaly?
Citlaly first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Citlaly alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 2,800 people named Citlaly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Citlaly most popular?
Citlaly peaked in 2005, reaching #1102 nationally. Today it ranks #3577, 2,475 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From citlalli to Citlaly
The story of Citlaly
Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec empire and is still spoken by well over a million people in Mexico. Citlalli, a star, is among the words that the revival of indigenous naming has brought into use as a personal name over the last few decades — alongside Xochitl, a flower, and Itzel. Spanish spelling produced Citlaly and Citlali, and both appear in Mexican and Mexican-American records.
Meaning
star
From Nahuatl citlalli, a star; the same word opens Citlalicue, a Nahua deity name, and stands inside Popocatepetl's neighboring peak Citlaltepetl, the star mountain, which Spanish calls Orizaba.
How the name formed
- citlalli
- Citlaly
Related forms: Citlalli · Citlali
Pronouncing Citlaly
seet-LAH-lee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The c is an s before i, following Spanish spelling.
Nicknames for Citlaly
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
- 1988
- Most girls named
- 2006222 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1102reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- +13.5%42 in 2025, from 37
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.
Citlaly in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Citlalli in Nahuatl — same name
- Citlali in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Citlalys among us
people named Citlaly are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 38,268 born in 2025 was named Citlaly
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Citlaly
- #3577
- Citlaly on the 2025 chart
- #735
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Citlaly went to 42 girls in 2025, but Citlali 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 — 2,842 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,080 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 38,268 for Citlaly 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 Johanne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Citlaly's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johanne climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johanne's path sketches the road Citlaly is walking now.
Citlaly 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 Citlaly is headed
Citlaly should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Citlaly beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Citlaly in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning in a living indigenous language, concrete and easy to explain.
- It carries a Mexican indigenous heritage rather than a Spanish one, which is the point for many families.
- Spanish speakers read it correctly at first sight.
- English readers meeting it cold do not know what to do with the opening.
- Citlali, Citlaly and Citlalli are all in use and none is dominant.
- Outside Mexico and the Mexican-American community it needs explaining every time.
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What they receive
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Citlaly
Feminine · #3577 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Citlalys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Citlaly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Citlaly?
- Citlaly is one of 3 recorded spellings. Citlali is the more common one — 159 births in 2025 against 42 for Citlaly.
- How popular is the name Citlaly in 2025?
- Citlaly ranks #3577 among US girl names in 2025, with 42 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Citlaly?
- About 1 in every 38,268 US girls born in 2025 was named Citlaly — 42 in all.
- Will my child share the name Citlaly with classmates?
- Citlaly will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Citlaly
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Delphine#3577 · Evelyne#3577 · Ellanor#3577 · Gwenevere#3577 · Lian#3577 · Katya#3577 · Kolby#3577 · Cherry#3577
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Citlaly? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Citlaly and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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