Celest
Celest was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,137 among girls’ names; 1,089 Americans have been recorded with it since 1908 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,030 Americans named Celest and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 19 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Celest by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Celest?
#11,137 among girls’ names, 2025
Celest fell from #9,608 in 2015 to #11,137 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 6.2 to 5.0 per million.
56 babies in 2004, the peak
Celest peaked in 2004, when 56 girls were given it, #2,856 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,137 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 16 | #6,993 | 9.9 |
| 2023 | 5 | #15,658 | 3.1 |
| 2022 | 12 | #8,634 | 7.3 |
| 2021 | 11 | #9,088 | 6.7 |
| 2020 | 10 | #9,702 | 6.2 |
| 2019 | 7 | #12,705 | 4.2 |
| 2018 | 12 | #8,714 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 10 | #10,117 | 5.8 |
| 2016 | 6 | #14,697 | 3.4 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #9,608 | 6.2 |
| 2014 | 15 | #7,741 | 8.4 |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,415 | 5.7 |
| 2012 | 16 | #7,521 | 9.1 |
| 2011 | 17 | #7,182 | 9.7 |
| 2010 | 17 | #7,279 | 9.6 |
| 2009 | 20 | #6,612 | 10.9 |
| 2008 | 27 | #5,316 | 14.3 |
| 2007 | 30 | #4,838 | 15.6 |
| 2006 | 31 | #4,599 | 16.3 |
| 2005 | 33 | #4,203 | 17.9 |
| 2004 | 56 | #2,856 | 30.5 |
| 2003 | 28 | #4,562 | 15.3 |
| 2002 | 48 | #3,021 | 26.7 |
| 2001 | 45 | #3,099 | 25.0 |
| 2000 | 44 | #3,124 | 24.2 |
| 1999 | 40 | #3,194 | 22.6 |
| 1998 | 47 | #2,798 | 26.6 |
| 1997 | 34 | #3,379 | 19.5 |
| 1996 | 39 | #3,034 | 22.2 |
| 1995 | 35 | #3,226 | 19.9 |
| 1994 | 26 | #4,026 | 14.6 |
| 1993 | 20 | #4,848 | 11.1 |
| 1992 | 14 | #6,352 | 7.6 |
| 1991 | 13 | #6,651 | 6.9 |
| 1990 | 12 | #6,930 | 6.3 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,031 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,510 | 4.5 |
| 1987 | 5 | #11,570 | 2.9 |
| 1986 | 5 | #11,165 | 2.9 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,466 | 3.5 |
| 1983 | 5 | #10,505 | 3.0 |
| 1982 | 9 | #6,964 | 5.3 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,290 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 12 | #5,584 | 7.2 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,410 | 5.0 |
| 1978 | 9 | #6,462 | 5.9 |
| 1977 | 6 | #8,595 | 3.9 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,264 | 3.4 |
| 1974 | 5 | #8,961 | 3.4 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,555 | 4.1 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,532 | 5.9 |
| 1971 | 10 | #5,173 | 6.0 |
| 1970 | 8 | #5,883 | 4.6 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,510 | 4.7 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,143 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 7 | #5,528 | 4.2 |
| 1966 | 5 | #6,698 | 3.0 |
| 1965 | 14 | #3,422 | 7.9 |
| 1964 | 10 | #4,388 | 5.3 |
| 1963 | 8 | #4,939 | 4.2 |
| 1962 | 5 | #6,702 | 2.5 |
| 1961 | 5 | #6,687 | 2.5 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,239 | 3.5 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,680 | 4.0 |
| 1958 | 9 | #4,233 | 4.5 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,193 | 2.4 |
| 1955 | 5 | #5,944 | 2.6 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,065 | 5.6 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,101 | 4.2 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,515 | 7.1 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,936 | 4.3 |
| 1908 | 5 | #2,166 | 15.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Celest a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Celest has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 73 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Celest: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Celest, and how old are they?
1,030 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,089 Americans ever recorded as Celest. The median Celest alive today is 26 years old; half are between 19 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 1,112 people named Celest (1,097 women and girls, 15 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 978 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Celest rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 52 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 108 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 209 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 527 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 132 |
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 Celest born?
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 236 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Texas | 152 | not ranked | 1.6× |
Where Celest is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Celest is most over-represented in California: since 1910 it was given 1.7 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 Celest with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Celest
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 Celest and names like it
- Compare Celest and MagaliBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCelest peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Celest since 1910.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Celest.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Celest alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.