Xitlaly
Feminine · “star”
Xitlaly is a star, and this one is genuinely Nahuatl. Citlalli is the word — the language of the Mexica, still spoken by well over a million people — and Mexican Spanish spells the opening sound with an x.
How old is the name Xitlaly?
Xitlaly first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Xitlaly alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 1,900 people named Xitlaly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Xitlaly most popular?
Xitlaly peaked in 2004, reaching #1357 nationally. Today it ranks #3067, 1,710 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From citlalli to Xitlaly
The story of Xitlaly
Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec empire and remains a living language in central Mexico; a great deal of its vocabulary entered Spanish and then English, including chocolate, tomato, avocado and coyote. Mexican naming since the twentieth century has turned deliberately toward Nahuatl for girls' names — Citlali, Xochitl, Itzel, Yaretzi — as an act of reclamation, and the practice is now entirely ordinary. Xitlaly reaches United States records with Mexican families, and it is one of the most-used of that group.
Meaning
star
Nahuatl citlalli means a star, and it is a well-documented word in a language with a substantial written record going back to the sixteenth century. The reading is not in dispute. Mexican Spanish uses x for several sounds Spanish lacks, which is why the same name appears as Citlali, Citlalli, Xitlali and Xitlaly — all the same word, spelled by different conventions.
How the name formed
- citlalli
- Citlali
- Xitlaly
Related forms: Citlalli · Citlali · Xitlali
Pronouncing Xitlaly
seet-LAH-lee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Mexican Spanish says the x here as an s; classical Nahuatl citlalli begins with a ts sound. English speakers reach for a z or an ex, neither of which is right.
Nicknames for Xitlaly
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 2004155 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1357reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- +17.8%53 in 2025, from 45
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.
Xitlaly in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Citlalli in Nahuatl — transliteration
- Citlali in Spanish — spelling variant
- Xitlali in Spanish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Xitlalys among us
people named Xitlaly are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 30,326 born in 2025 was named Xitlaly
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Xitlaly
- #3067
- Xitlaly on the 2025 chart
- #709
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Xitlaly went to 53 girls in 2025, but Xitlali, Xitlalli and Xitllali are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 254, which makes it the 709th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,358 places above the chart.
- Xitlali183
- Xitlaly53
- Xitlalli12
- Xitllali6
About 1 girl in 6,328 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 30,326 for Xitlaly 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 Melrose test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Xitlaly's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melrose climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melrose's path sketches the road Xitlaly is walking now.
Xitlaly 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 Xitlaly is headed
Xitlaly 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.
Xitlaly beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Xitlaly in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented meaning in a living indigenous language, which very few American names can claim.
- Lali and Citla are both natural short forms used in Mexican families.
- Three syllables that read correctly in Spanish at first sight.
- The x is said as an s here and English speakers will not guess that.
- Xitlaly, Xitlali, Citlali and Citlalli are all in use and none is standard.
- Outside Mexican communities it will be spelled out and mispronounced constantly.
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What they receive
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Xitlaly
Feminine · #3067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Xitlalys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Xitlaly are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Xitlaly?
- Xitlaly is one of 4 recorded spellings. Xitlali is the more common one — 183 births in 2025 against 53 for Xitlaly.
- How popular is the name Xitlaly in 2025?
- Xitlaly ranks #3067 among US girl names in 2025, with 53 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Xitlaly?
- About 1 in every 30,326 US girls born in 2025 was named Xitlaly — 53 in all.
- Will my child share the name Xitlaly with classmates?
- Xitlaly will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Xitlaly
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mahnoor#3067 · Melodi#3067 · Evany#3067 · Stacey#3067 · Finlee#3067 · Fabiola#3067 · Anissa#3067 · Danni#3067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Xitlaly? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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