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Calista

#1,597 in 2025Girls' name

Most beautiful

Calista has been given to 7,504 babies in the U.S. since 1894. In 2025 it ranked #1,597 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1999, with 490 recorded.

Babies named Calista, 2025

1 in 25,300

Calista over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Calista: meaning, origin, and history

Most beautiful

Latin

What Calista means

Calista means “most beautiful”, associated with Kállistos.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Latin Callistus, from Ancient Greek Κάλλιστος (Kállistos, “most beautiful”), from καλός (kalós, “beautiful”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Calista (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Calista is used in English. Its origins include Latin.

Calista comes through Latin Callistus and Ancient Greek Κάλλιστος.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,504 girls were recorded with the name Calista between 1894 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 490 in 1999; its best national rank was #519 in 1999.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,927 in 2020 to #1,597 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,372 in 2015 to #1,597 in 2025.

How common is Calista?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 25,300
131 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 12,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,597
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
17,542 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Calista sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5002%

Put another way: gather 17,542 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Calista. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Calistas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Calista was born before 2004 — so the typical Calista is around 21 today.

Median birth year
2004
About 21 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
36.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
64.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
7,036
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 36.4% of all recorded uses (2,733).

Is Calista rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−144
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+330
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−225
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.76×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
26.7%
Peak was 1999 (490)
Years since peak
26
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
16.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#519
1999

Spellings of Calista

Calista is not the most common spelling — Alisha is, with 21.5% against Calista's 2.8%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Calista is used

Across 2016–2025, Calista was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 7,143 girls, against 1 in 12,736 across all states with data. It was least common in Georgia (1 in 100,000).

114 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 7,143
  2. 2Arizona1 in 9,091
  3. 3Ohio1 in 9,091
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in 9,091
  5. 5Florida1 in 11,111
  6. 6New Mexico1 in 11,111
  7. 7Texas1 in 12,500
  8. 8New York1 in 14,286

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Calista around the world

Where Calista ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2025
    #1,892
    in 2025
  • France
    1999–2025
    #1,128
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1992–2024
    #1,349
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1976–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Calista

People whose public names include Calista, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Calista in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Calista. Linked forms have their own page here.

KalistaCallista

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Calista by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,597
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 330
Best rank ever
#519
1999
Peak year
1999
490 that year
First recorded
1894
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
7,504
Count in 2025
131

Names similar to Calista

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CallistaCalystaCaleighCalliopeCaliyahCalleighCalliCallaCalianaAugustaCalissaCallanKalistaShastaCalvinCaleyCalypsoChristaCallahanCalleyCallieCalleeCalinaCaleah

Names with a curve like Calista

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Calista, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

TayaAshtynNyaPriscilaNiyaAnjaliKiyaCaleighGisselleDelanieAreliNoelia

Sibling names for Calista

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Calista

Top names of 1999, Calista's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1999Girls' names starting with CRomantic Girl Names