Kallista
Feminine · “most beautiful”
Kallista is a Greek superlative: not beautiful but most beautiful, the form of the word that was inscribed on the golden apple thrown among the goddesses and started the Trojan War. The name has a nymph behind it as well as an adjective, and its American use is modern and small, rising through the 1990s and peaking in 2001.
How old is the name Kallista?
Kallista first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Kallista alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 900 people named Kallista are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kallista most popular?
Kallista peaked in 2001, reaching #2571 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 3,151 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kalos to Kallista
The story of Kallista
Kalliste was used as an epithet of Artemis in Athens, where she had a sanctuary as Artemis Kalliste. Kallisto the nymph belongs to the same religious neighborhood: her story is an explanation of the constellation, and Jupiter's fourth Galilean moon is named for her. English-speaking use of the name is late — Callista appears in nineteenth-century literature and rose in American use only towards the end of the twentieth century, when Greek names generally came back into fashion. The K- spelling is the more directly Greek of the two, since Greek kappa is a k; the C- spelling comes through Latin.
Meaning
most beautiful
Greek kalos means beautiful or fine; kalliste is its superlative feminine, 'most beautiful'. The word is genuinely superlative rather than merely descriptive, which is unusual in a name. Kallisto, with an o, is the related form borne by the nymph in Greek myth whom Zeus pursued and Hera turned into a bear, and who became the constellation Ursa Major — the Great Bear. Both forms feed the modern name.
How the name formed
- kalos
- kalliste
- Kallisto
- Kallista
Related forms: Kalliste · Callista · Callista
Pronouncing Kallista
kuh-LISS-tuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The double l is not lengthened in English. A more Greek saying gives the first syllable a full a, kah-LEE-stah, which some families use.
Nicknames for Kallista
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 200159 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2571reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +90.9%21 in 2025, from 11
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.
Kallista in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kalliste in Greek — same name
- Callista in Latin — spelling variant
- Callista in Italian — spelling variant
Kallistas among us
people named Kallista are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Kallista
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kallista
- #5722
- Kallista on the 2025 chart
- #733
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kallista went to 21 girls in 2025, but Calista, Callista and Kalista 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 — 4,989 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,019 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Kallista 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 Maylene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kallista's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maylene climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maylene's path sketches the road Kallista is walking now.
Kallista 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
Kallista beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kallista 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 a genuine superlative and can be given in two words.
- Callie is a ready-made short form already familiar in American use.
- It has both a word and a myth behind it, which gives a bearer two stories.
- The K and C spellings both circulate and hers will be written the other way.
- It sits close to Calista, Callie and Christa in sound.
- The literal meaning is a claim about appearance, which some adults find awkward to explain.
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Kallista
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kallistas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Kallista are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kallista?
- Kallista is one of 4 recorded spellings. Calista is the more common one — 131 births in 2025 against 21 for Kallista.
- How popular is the name Kallista in 2025?
- Kallista ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kallista?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Kallista — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kallista with classmates?
- Kallista will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kallista
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kallista? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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