Calliope
Calliope was given to 682 girls in 2025, #451 among girls’ names; 6,098 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,000 Americans named Calliope and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Calliope by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Calliope mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Calliope is “a female given name.” Its etymology gives the senses “beautiful” (κᾰλλῐ-) and “voice” (ὄψ).
From Latin Calliope, from Ancient Greek Καλλιόπη (Kalliópē), from κᾰλλῐ- (kăllĭ-, “beautiful”) + ὄψ (óps, “voice”).
/kəˈlaɪ.ə.pi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Calliope?
#451 among girls’ names, 2025
Calliope rose from #1,149 in 2015 to #451 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.12 to 0.42 per 1,000.
682 babies in 2025, the peak
Calliope peaked in 2025, when 682 girls were given it, #451 among girls’ names. In 2024 it went to 614 girls.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 682 | #451 | 0.42 |
| 2024 | 614 | #499 | 0.38 |
| 2023 | 622 | #493 | 0.39 |
| 2022 | 510 | #588 | 0.31 |
| 2021 | 497 | #600 | 0.30 |
| 2020 | 411 | #692 | 0.25 |
| 2019 | 407 | #706 | 0.24 |
| 2018 | 337 | #807 | 0.20 |
| 2017 | 335 | #814 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 291 | #941 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 221 | #1,149 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 199 | #1,229 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 187 | #1,267 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 147 | #1,511 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 128 | #1,661 | 0.07 |
| 2010 | 87 | #2,223 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 55 | #3,097 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 47 | #3,485 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 42 | #3,798 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 35 | #4,176 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 36 | #3,959 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 14 | #7,903 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 26 | #4,824 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 13 | #7,902 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,483 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 9 | #10,030 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 8 | #10,513 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 10 | #8,683 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,141 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 5 | #13,848 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 7 | #10,683 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,003 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 10 | #7,962 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 5 | #12,060 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,441 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,422 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #5,929 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,495 | under 0.01 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,497 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,657 | under 0.01 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,806 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 7 | #3,914 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,943 | under 0.01 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,454 | under 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,707 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 5 | #5,223 | under 0.01 |
| 1917 | 7 | #3,769 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Calliope a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Calliope has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Calliope: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Calliope, and how old are they?
6,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 6,098 Americans ever recorded as Calliope. The median Calliope alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 2,617 people named Calliope (2,607 women and girls, 10 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,798 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 8 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 38 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 670 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,280 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Calliope born?
The states with the most babies named Calliope are California, Texas and Florida, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 74 | #449 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 74 | #451 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 34 | #534 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 34 | #326 | 1.0× |
| Washington | 28 | #257 | 1.5× |
| Indiana | 27 | #261 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 26 | #406 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 24 | #474 | 0.7× |
| Virginia | 21 | #382 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 21 | #515 | 0.7× |
Where Calliope is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Calliope is most over-represented in Oregon: since 1917 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Calliope with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 8,124 babies since 1880, Calliope is the most given (75% of them). In 2025 it was given to 682 of their 834 babies (82%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Calliope
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Calliope and names like it
- Compare Calliope and KalliopeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCalliope peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Calliope since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Calliope.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Calliope alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.