Ixchel
Feminine · “Lady Rainbow”
Ixchel is a Maya goddess: the moon, the tides, weaving, childbirth and medicine, all held by one figure whom the Yucatec called Lady Rainbow. Spanish missionaries recorded her, archaeologists dug up her shrines on the island of Cozumel, and Mexican and Guatemalan families have given the name to daughters for generations.
How old is the name Ixchel?
Ixchel first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Ixchel alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 1,000 people named Ixchel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ixchel most popular?
Ixchel peaked in 2007, reaching #2647 nationally. Today it ranks #4758, 2,111 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ix Chel to Ixchel
The story of Ixchel
Ixchel appears in the Spanish accounts of the Yucatan and in the surviving Maya codices as a goddess of the moon and of everything the moon governed: the tides, the monthly rhythms of the body, childbirth and healing. Women crossed the water to her shrine on Cozumel to ask for safe deliveries, and that pilgrimage is one of the best-documented things about her. The name came back into everyday use in Mexico and Guatemala in the twentieth century, part of a broader return to indigenous names, and it traveled north with Mexican families.
Meaningscholars disagree
Lady Rainbow
Yucatec Maya ix is a feminine prefix, roughly lady or she; chel is generally read as rainbow. That is the standard reading. Some specialists prefer chel as a form of a word for light, and the sixteenth-century sources that name her are themselves not always consistent. The prefix, at least, is not in doubt.
How the name formed
- Ix Chel
- Ixchel
Related forms: Ix Chel · Ixchel
Pronouncing Ixchel
eesh-CHEL
Two syllables, stress at the end. The opening x is said as sh in Maya and in Mexican Spanish, not as ks. English speakers reach for IX-chel, which is the one correction families make most often.
Nicknames for Ixchel
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 200769 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2647reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%28 in 2025, from 49
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.
Ixchel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ix Chel in Yucatec Maya — same name
- Ixchel in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Ixchels among us
people named Ixchel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was named Ixchel
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 Dondra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ixchel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dondra climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dondra's path sketches the road Ixchel is walking now.
Ixchel 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 Ixchel is headed
Ixchel looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 29% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Ixchel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ixchel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a documented indigenous history rather than a borrowed or invented one.
- Chel is a ready short form that any English speaker can say at once.
- It is instantly recognized across Mexico, Guatemala and the Yucatan.
- The x is the whole difficulty: English readers say ks, and the correction is lifelong.
- The spelling is sometimes written Ix Chel as two words, so records within a family can differ.
- A goddess-name is a large thing to carry, and readings of who she was vary between sources.
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What they receive
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Ixchel
Feminine · #4758 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ixchels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Ixchel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ixchel in 2025?
- Ixchel ranks #4758 among US girl names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ixchel?
- About 1 in every 57,402 US girls born in 2025 was named Ixchel — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ixchel with classmates?
- Ixchel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ixchel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marylou#4758 · Landon#4758 · Lexa#4758 · Alysia#4758 · Parisa#4758 · Jumana#4758 · Jadyn#4758 · Berenice#4758
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ixchel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ixchel and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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