Crystal
Masculine · “Ice”
Crystal is given to girls far more often — 332,114 girls against 1,184 boys since 1880. See Crystal as a girl name
The best glass in the world is called crystal because it was made to imitate a stone. Ordinary seventeenth-century glass was green, cloudy and full of bubbles; an English glassmaker added lead oxide, got something clear and heavy that rang when struck, and the name of the mineral it resembled transferred to it and stayed.
How old is the name Crystal?
Crystal first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Crystal alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 1,100 people named Crystal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Crystal most popular?
Crystal peaked in 1983, reaching #967 nationally. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From krystallos to Crystal
The story of Crystal
The name also attached itself to a building, and by a joke. When a vast iron and glass structure was put up in Hyde Park for the exhibition of eighteen fifty-one, it had no name; a satirical magazine called it the Crystal Palace in print, apparently sarcastically, and the name was universal within weeks and stuck for the rest of the building's life. It was moved to south London afterwards, gave its name to the district and to a football club, and burned down in a single night in the nineteen-thirties, watched by half of London. The district is still called that. A word for ice, applied to a rock, applied to glass, applied by a magazine to a shed, is now the name of a place on the map.
Meaning
Ice
Greek krystallos meant ice and was applied to clear quartz on the theory that it was water frozen past thawing. The English word for the stone became the name, used directly in the way that Ruby, Pearl and Opal are. Nothing about it describes a person.
How the name formed
- krystallos
- cristal
- Crystal
Related forms: Cristal · Cristal
Pronouncing Crystal
KRIS-tul
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The final l carries its own syllable without a vowel doing much work, which is why the name can be spelled with or without one and sound the same.
Nicknames for Crystal
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
- 198383 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #967reached in 1983
- Change vs 2009
- −14.3%6 in 2010, from 7
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.
Crystal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cristal in French — same name
- Cristal in Spanish — same name
Crystals among us
people named Crystal are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Crystal sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is immediate and needs no explaining anywhere in the world.
- Several short forms in different registers, all of them easy.
- It is spelled almost identically in French and Spanish.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It is very closely dated to the nineteen-eighties in American ears.
- The word now also names a drug, which is an association no family chose and cannot avoid.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Crystal to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Crystal? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Crystal
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Crystals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Crystal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Crystal in 2025?
- Crystal is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Crystal with classmates?
- Crystal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Crystal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Crystal and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle