Felicity
Feminine · “Happiness”
Felicity is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 18,559 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Felicity is the English word for great happiness, borrowed whole as a name — one of the few names a reader can look up in an ordinary dictionary. It came into English use among the 17th-century Puritans, who liked names that said something out loud, and behind that stands the Latin felicitas and a Roman saint. Four unhurried syllables, with the stress landing on the second: fuh-LIS-uh-tee.
How old is the name Felicity?
Felicity first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Felicity is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 18,500 people named Felicity are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Felicity most popular?
Felicity peaked in 2017, reaching #345 nationally. Today it ranks #473, 128 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Where it comes from
From Felix to Felicity
The story of Felicity
Felicitas was a Roman personification of good fortune, honored with temples in the city and stamped on Roman coins. The word passed into Christian use as a name, carried by Felicitas, a martyr venerated at Rome from the early centuries of the church, and it spread through medieval Europe as Félicité in France and Felicita in Italy. English took the abstract noun rather than the Latin name: Felicity appears among the virtue names the Puritans favored in the 17th century, in the company of Prudence, Mercy and Charity. It has never left English use since, though it has always been better known in Britain and Australia than in the United States, where its wave is a recent one.
Meaning
Happiness, good fortune
From Latin felicitas, from felix — fortunate, fruitful, happy. The same root gives the name Felix.
How the name formed
- Felix
- Felicitas
- Félicité
- Felicity
Related forms: Félicité · Felicita · Felicidad · Felicidade · Felicitas · Felizitas
Pronouncing Felicity
fuh-LIS-uh-tee
Stress on the second syllable, exactly like the English noun felicity. Some speakers compress the ending to fuh-LIS-tee in quick speech.
Nicknames for Felicity
High
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
- 1935
- Most girls named
- 2017938 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #345reached in 2017
- Change vs 2023
- −4.1%653 in 2025, from 681
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.
Felicity in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Félicité in French — same name
- Felicita in Italian — same name
- Felicidad in Spanish — related form
- Felicidade in Portuguese — related form
- Felicitas in Latin — same name
- Felizitas in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Pennsylvania.
Felicitys among us
people named Felicity are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,461 born in 2025 was named Felicity
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 Gayla test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Felicity's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gayla climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gayla's path sketches the road Felicity is walking now.
Felicity 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 Felicity is headed
Felicity 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.
Felicity beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Felicity in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way the English dictionary word is spelled, so most people get it right the first time without being told.
- A documented line running from Roman Latin through medieval France to English, unbroken for centuries.
- Several established informal short forms — Flick, Fliss, Lissy, Fee — so there is room for a nickname without inventing one.
- Recognizable across French, Italian, Spanish, German and Portuguese in closely matched forms.
- Familiar in English without being crowded; a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- Because it is also a common noun, it can be read as a word before it is read as a name — and the noun sounds a touch formal or literary in everyday American English.
- Felicia and Felice are separate names that sound close, so expect the occasional mishearing or correction over the phone.
- In the US the name's whole run is recent, which means nearly everyone carrying it is young — it reads as current rather than inherited.
- Four syllables ask for a short middle name if you want the full string to move easily.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Felicity to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Felicity
Feminine · #473 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Felicitys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,500 people named Felicity are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Felicity in 2025?
- Felicity ranks #473 among US girl names in 2025, with 653 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Felicity?
- About 1 in every 2,461 US girls born in 2025 was named Felicity — 653 in all.
- Will my child share the name Felicity with classmates?
- Felicity will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Felicity
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alexandria#474 · Winnie#475 · Jaylani#470 · Maren#470 · Rylie#476 · Camryn#476 · Alison#476 · Fiona#470
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Felicity? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Felicity and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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