Maricela
Feminine
Maricela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 13,077 girls against 56 boys since 1880.
Maricela joins María to Celia — and Celia descends from a Roman family name meaning heavenly, or possibly blind.
How old is the name Maricela?
Maricela first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Maricela alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 12,500 people named Maricela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maricela most popular?
Maricela peaked in 1977, reaching #453 nationally. Today it ranks #2691, 2,238 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From María Celia to Maricela
The story of Maricela
Spanish naming compounds María with a second name constantly — María Elena, María Celia, María José — and contracts them, giving Marisol, Maricela and Malena. Caelia is a Roman family name generally connected to the heavens. Maricela appears in American records in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
A Spanish compound of María, whose meaning is unrecovered, and Celia, from the Roman Caelia, generally read from caelum, 'heaven'. A derivation from caecus, 'blind', is also proposed for the related Caecilia. Neither half fully resolves.
How the name formed
- María Celia
- Maricela
Related forms: Maricela · Marisela
Pronouncing Maricela
mah-ree-SEH-lah
Four syllables, stress on the third. Spanish gives every vowel a full value.
Nicknames for Maricela
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 1977437 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #453reached in 1977
- Change vs 2023
- +4.9%64 in 2025, from 61
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.
Maricela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maricela in Spanish — same name
- Marisela in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Maricelas among us
people named Maricela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 25,114 born in 2025 was named Maricela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maricela
- #2691
- Maricela on the 2025 chart
- #844
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maricela went to 64 girls in 2025, but Marisela, Maricella and Marisella are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 116, which makes it the 844th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,847 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 13,856 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 25,114 for Maricela 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 Carolee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maricela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carolee climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carolee's path sketches the road Maricela is walking now.
Maricela 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 Maricela is headed
Maricela 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.
Maricela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maricela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That Spanish contracts compound Marías this way is a first-rate naming fact.
- Mari and Cela are two short forms, both with real use.
- Four syllables of open vowels, which carries unusually well.
- Mary's own meaning is genuinely unrecovered.
- Maricela and Marisela are both in circulation.
- Four syllables make it long for everyday use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maricela
Feminine · #2691 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maricelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,500 people named Maricela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maricela?
- Maricela is the most-used spelling in US records — 64 of the 116 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Marisela, Maricella and Marisella.
- How popular is the name Maricela in 2025?
- Maricela ranks #2691 among US girl names in 2025, with 64 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maricela?
- About 1 in every 25,114 US girls born in 2025 was named Maricela — 64 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maricela with classmates?
- Maricela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maricela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cyra#2691 · Annmarie#2691 · Layana#2691 · Meher#2691 · Aeris#2691 · Zulema#2691 · Adelyne#2691 · Sable#2691
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maricela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maricela and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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