Kalista
Feminine · “most beautiful”
Kalista is Greek for the most beautiful, and it is the word inscribed on the apple that started the Trojan War — for the fairest.
How old is the name Kalista?
Kalista first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Kalista alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 2,400 people named Kalista are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kalista most popular?
Kalista peaked in 1999, reaching #1094 nationally. Today it ranks #4067, 2,973 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kalos to Kalista
The story of Kalista
Kalos in Greek covers beauty, fineness and moral goodness at once — a kalos kagathos was a man who was both handsome and honorable, and the phrase was a whole social ideal. The superlative gives Kallistos, borne by several patriarchs, and Callisto, a nymph turned into a bear and then into a constellation. Kalista appears in American records in real numbers in the 1990s.
Meaning
most beautiful
From Greek kallistos, the superlative of kalos, beautiful or fine; the same root gives calligraphy, beautiful writing, and kaleidoscope, a viewer of beautiful forms. Callisto is a separate mythological figure from the same word.
How the name formed
- kalos
- kallistos
- Kalista
Related forms: Kallista · Calista · Callista
Pronouncing Kalista
kuh-LIS-tah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Kalista
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
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 1999182 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1094reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −12.5%35 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.
Kalista in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kallista in Greek — same name
- Calista in English — spelling variant
- Callista in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kalistas among us
people named Kalista are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 45,922 born in 2025 was named Kalista
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kalista
- #4067
- Kalista on the 2025 chart
- #733
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kalista went to 35 girls in 2025, but Calista, Callista and Kallista are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 229, which makes it the 733rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,334 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,019 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 45,922 for Kalista 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 Romayne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kalista's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Romayne climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Romayne's path sketches the road Kalista is walking now.
Kalista 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 Kalista is headed
Kalista 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.
Kalista beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kalista in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning with a genuinely rich word behind it.
- The link to calligraphy and kaleidoscope is worth telling.
- Kali is a usable short form in current use.
- Calista with a C is the more common English spelling.
- A name meaning most beautiful is a large thing to hand a child.
- Kalista, Calista and Callista are all in use and none is dominant.
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What they receive
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Kalista
Feminine · #4067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kalistas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Kalista are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kalista?
- Kalista is one of 4 recorded spellings. Calista is the more common one — 131 births in 2025 against 35 for Kalista.
- How popular is the name Kalista in 2025?
- Kalista ranks #4067 among US girl names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kalista?
- About 1 in every 45,922 US girls born in 2025 was named Kalista — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kalista with classmates?
- Kalista will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kalista
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eli#4067 · Peace#4067 · Medina#4067 · Darlin#4067 · Anja#4067 · Sparrow#4067 · Liani#4067 · Salina#4067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kalista? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kalista and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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