Cristela
Feminine · “anointed”
Cristela reads as two Spanish names run together — Cristina at the front, Estela at the back, sharing the letters in the middle. Both are standard, both are widely used, and blending them produces something that sounds entirely at home in Spanish while being new. The root of the first half is a word about oil.
How old is the name Cristela?
Cristela first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Cristela alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 600 people named Cristela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cristela most popular?
Cristela peaked in 1953, reaching #3106 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,102 places below that high. See the whole 1953 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From christos to Cristela
The story of Cristela
Spanish naming builds new names by blending existing ones more readily than English does, and the results are usually legible to a Spanish speaker even on first hearing — the parts are all standard. Cristela belongs to that habit. Its American record runs from the early twentieth century and is carried by Mexican American families in particular. What is worth knowing about the front half is the concrete image behind it: not a title in the abstract but a jar of oil poured over someone's head, which is what the Greek word actually describes.
Meaningscholars disagree
anointed; and star
Cristina comes from Christ, and christos is a Greek word meaning anointed — it translates the Hebrew mashiach, and the anointing in question was with oil, which is what made a king or a priest. Estela comes from the Latin stella, a star. Whether this name is a blend of the two, or Cristina with an ending, cannot be determined.
How the name formed
- christos
- Cristina
- Cristela
Related forms: Cristina · Estela · Cristela
Pronouncing Cristela
krees-TEH-lah
Three syllables, stress in the middle, all vowels pure and short in Spanish. English speakers usually say kris-TELL-uh, which is close enough that nobody is troubled.
Nicknames for Cristela
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
- 1917
- Most girls named
- 199217 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3106reached in 1953
- Change vs 2017
- −33.3%6 in 2025, from 9
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.
Cristela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cristina in Spanish — related form
- Estela in Spanish — related form
- Cristela in Portuguese — same name
Cristelas among us
people named Cristela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Cristela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cristela
- #13208
- Cristela on the 2025 chart
- #938
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cristela went to 6 girls in 2025, but Christella and Cristella are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 938th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,270 places above the chart.
- Christella10
- Cristela6
- Cristella6
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Cristela 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 Sheldon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cristela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sheldon climbed just as high around 1936, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sheldon's path sketches the road Cristela is walking now.
Cristela 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
Cristela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cristela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are standard Spanish names, so the whole thing is legible to any Spanish speaker.
- Cris works in both languages and needs no explanation.
- Three open syllables sit well after almost any surname.
- It is uncommon while sounding entirely familiar within Spanish-speaking families.
- Cristella, Cristel and Christela all appear in records, so the spelling has to be given.
- Outside Spanish-speaking settings it will be heard as Crystal, which is a different name entirely.
- Its meaning cannot be given in one line, since two names meet in it.
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What they receive
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Cristela
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cristelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Cristela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cristela?
- Cristela is one of 3 recorded spellings. Christella is the more common one — 10 births in 2025 against 6 for Cristela.
- How popular is the name Cristela in 2025?
- Cristela ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cristela?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Cristela — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cristela with classmates?
- Cristela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cristela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cristela? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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