Felicia
Feminine · “lucky”
Felicia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 91,092 girls against 279 boys since 1880.
Felicia is the feminine of Felix, and Felix means lucky. It is one of the very few names in any language that is straightforwardly a statement of good fortune rather than a description or a claim.
How old is the name Felicia?
Felicia was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Felicia alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 83,000 people named Felicia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Felicia most popular?
Felicia peaked in 1986, reaching #89 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 5,465 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Felicia appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From felix to Felicia
The story of Felicia
Felix was a Roman nickname before it was a name, given to a general who won unusually often and then adopted formally by his family. Early Christians took it up in large numbers because the meaning suited them, and several martyrs and popes carried it. Felicia is the Latin feminine, in European use from the Middle Ages. American use rose through the 1970s and peaked in the mid-1980s, when the sound sat comfortably beside Alicia and Marisa.
Meaning
lucky, fortunate
From the Latin felix, 'fortunate' or 'happy', and its derivative felicitas, 'good fortune'. Both were ordinary Roman words and both were used as names. There is no ambiguity here at all — this is one of the cleanest etymologies on any chart.
How the name formed
- felix
- Felicia
Related forms: Felicia · Felicia · Felicja · Félicie
Pronouncing Felicia
fuh-LEE-shuh
Three syllables in American English, stress in the middle. Spanish and Italian give it four — feh-LEE-chee-ah — with the c said differently.
Nicknames for Felicia
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19872,909 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #89reached in 1986
- Change vs 2022
- −45.0%22 in 2025, from 40
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.
Felicia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Felicia in Spanish — same name
- Felicia in Italian — same name
- Felicja in Polish — related form
- Félicie in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Felicias among us
people named Felicia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Felicia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Shelly test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Felicia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shelly climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shelly's path sketches the road Felicia is walking now.
Felicia 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
Felicia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Felicia 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 completely transparent and unambiguously positive.
- It is a standard name in Spanish, Italian and Polish, so it crosses borders unchanged.
- Felix is a well-known relative, which makes the name easy to place.
- The number of syllables differs between English and Romance-language use.
- It is closely associated with the 1980s in American records.
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What they receive
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Felicia
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Felicias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 83,000 people named Felicia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Felicia in 2025?
- Felicia ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Felicia?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Felicia — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Felicia with classmates?
- Felicia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Felicia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Gray#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Felicia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Felicia and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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