Criss
Masculine · “anointed”
Criss is given to both — 598 boys and 114 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Criss-cross was Christ-cross. English hornbooks printed a small cross before the alphabet, children called the whole row the Christ-cross row, and the phrase wore down to crisscross — which then stopped meaning a cross at all and started meaning a pattern.
How old is the name Criss?
Criss first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Criss alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 500 people named Criss are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Criss most popular?
Criss peaked in 1959, reaching #1916 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,092 places below that high. See the whole 1959 chart.
Where it comes from
From christos to Criss
The story of Criss
A hornbook was a sheet of paper with the alphabet on it, mounted on a paddle and covered with a thin layer of horn to protect it, and it is how English children learned to read for three hundred years. The sheet began with a cross, and the alphabet that followed was the Christ-cross row. Children said it fast; it became crisscross; and by the eighteenth century the word had detached from the cross entirely and meant intersecting lines. Almost nobody using it now would guess. The name is a much simpler matter: Chris with the Greek letter removed and the final consonant doubled, both of which are ordinary English spelling moves.
Meaning
anointed
A clipped form of Christopher or Christian, from Greek christos, anointed. The doubled s is regular English after a short vowel. The h that Chris keeps is the Greek chi, and dropping it, as this spelling does, removes the last visible sign of the Greek.
How the name formed
- christos
- Christopher
- Chris
- Criss
Pronouncing Criss
KRIS
One syllable. Chris, Criss and Cris are said identically; the h and the doubled s are both spelling choices and neither is audible.
Nicknames for Criss
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 200740 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1916reached in 1959
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%5 in 2025, from 6
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.
Crisss among us
people named Criss are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Criss
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Criss
- #12008
- Criss on the 2025 chart
- #918
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Criss went to 5 boys in 2025, but Chriss is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 10, which makes it the 918th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,090 places above the chart.
- Chriss5
- Criss5
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Criss 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 Lenzie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Criss's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lenzie climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lenzie's path sketches the road Criss is walking now.
Criss 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
Criss beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Criss in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning traceable through to Hebrew.
- One syllable, which carries well and cannot be misheard.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- Chris is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and this one will be corrected for life.
- Dropping the h removes the connection to Christ that the name is entirely made of.
- It is a clipped form used as a full name, which reads as informal on paper.
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Criss
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Crisss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Criss are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Criss?
- Criss is one of 2 recorded spellings. Chriss is the more common one — 5 births in 2025 against 5 for Criss.
- How popular is the name Criss in 2025?
- Criss ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Criss?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Criss — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Criss with classmates?
- Criss will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Criss
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Criss? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Criss and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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