The baby name Ciel is all blue skies and possibility, with a spiritual side, too.
Thanks to Jen for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME CIEL MEAN?
Ciel is the French word for sky, but also for heaven. If you recite The Lord’s Prayer in French, it begins “Notre Père, qui es aux cieux …”
And if you see a rainbow in Paris? That’s a l’arc-en-ciel.
In Spanish, the word is cielo, and it also does double-duty, meaning both sky and heaven, too. (Though rainbow is arco iris.)
A quick note on pronunciation: Ciel rhymes with miel – honey, and “be well.” Cielo sounds like Ciel + an o.
Both of them resemble the traditional name Celia, which comes from the Latin caelum meaning heaven. It’s also the source of our word celestial, and yes, Ciel and Cielo, too.
SKY BLUE CIEL
Very occasionally, the color “bleu celeste” is found in heraldry – the designs for a coat of arms, among other symbols.
Bleu celeste is also called sky blue or – you guessed it! – ciel.
That makes this a color name, and that’s a category parents love. But that’s not the reason we’re hearing Ciel borrowed as a baby name.
INSPIRED BY THE HEAVENS
Like a number of word names, Ciel probably first became a given name thanks to a Marian title.
Christians have long referred to Mary as “Queen of Heaven.” This title pre-dates Christianity. Ancient people gave this title to goddesses associated with the skies, including Hera in Greek mythology, as well her Roman equivalent, Juno.
The Spanish refer to Maria del Cielo, and the Italians call her Madonna del Cielo. In French, it would be Marie de Ciel, but that seems to be the rarest of them all.
While it’s not a common title, it’s an immediately familiar, obvious one that gives the Ciel name meaning in a spiritual sense.
CIEL IN POPULAR CULTURE
In 1999, the telenovela Por tu amor debuted on Mexican television.
Gabriela Spanic played Maria del Cielo Montalvo – Cielo.
In the US, a Univision affiliate finished broadcasting the series in the US in the year 2001, meaning an American audience of Spanish speakers might have heard this name quite a bit.
In 2009, supermodel Niki Taylor named her first daughter Ciel. She and husband Burney Lamar, a former race car driver, went on the welcome a son named Rex. Taylor is also mother to sons Jake and Hunter from a prior marriage.
There’s also:
- Canadian DJ Ciel, born Cindy Li.
- Brazilian footballer Jociel Ferreira da Silva, better known as Ciel.
- It’s been a popular name in Japanese manga and similar media from the early 2000s.
The most famous use of the name? The anime Black Butler gave the world a demon called Sebastian and his master, Ciel Phantomhive. Sent in a fantasy version of Victorian England, young Ciel is tasked with solving crimes with the help of Sebastian.
It’s dark and twisty … and it’s still going strong. It’s been adapated for film and television in Japan, with another installment coming in 2025.
All of this makes the baby name Ciel more familiar – and strongly unisex.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME CIEL?
The baby name Ciel isn’t the most popular in this category. That distinction belongs to the Spanish Cielo, which first caught in the US in 2001, thanks to the televnovela.
As of 2023, the numbers look like this:
- Cielo was given to 18 boys and 309 girls. It ranks #859 for girls in the US.
- In second place, Ciel was given to 31 boys and 23 girls in 2023.
- 36 girls were named Cielle.
- Ciela was given to 34 girls. It might also be short for longer names, like Graciela.
- And the elaborate Ciella was the choice for 13 girls.
In many ways, the names follow former favorites, including:
- Skylar and Skyler, as well as Skye, Sky, and Skyla.
- Both Heaven and Nevaeh appear in the current girls’ Top 1000.
But if Ciel is a French word, how about popularity in France?
It’s quite rare. Just a handful of girls have received the name since 2010 – but it does register in their data.
SURPISING UNISEX POSSIBILITY
This might be the perfect name for parents seeking a unisex, meaningful, beautiful name for a child.
It’s easy enough to explain the name’s origin, meaning, and spelling. With names like Gabriel and Ariel, we recognize it immediately.
And thanks to pop culture, Ciel is global, mixing references from manga and Christianity, in a way that makes this name difficult to pigeonhole.
While Cielo is attracing all of the attention, Ciel is every bit as compelling an option.
What do you think of the baby name Ciel?
First published on August 28, 2012, this post was updated on November 23, 2024.
As someone who is a MALE named Ciel then I obviously consider the name more masculine. It would be weird to know someone named that who’d be a girl
Take it from someone whose name IS Ciel and IS female… It’s not easy to spell, to pronounce, or explain [in a sea of Sarah’s and Emma’s] … but it is distinct. The gender may be up for debate but not for me!
Well, I think Ciel suits a boy better, but then, I’m an Anime fan so my opinion may as well be void…
I prefer Ciela, pronounced as “Shella”. I love it because it’s simple, rare and it sounds cute and femine. The name Ciel reminds me of a girl, so for me its a girly name.
I love Cielo – a native Spanish-speaker with a Cielo tells me that it’s given in the sense of “sweetheart, darling”, as in “my heaven, my angel”. I thought that was beautiful.
Ciel looks a little unfinished to me.
Starbucks has a blend of coffee called Casa Cielo. They pronounce it ‘SEE-ehl-oh’. I would imagine that most people in the Pac NW would pronounce it as such as well.
Perhaps because of the java association, it feels extra Italian… like a next generation for Siena or Cecily.
Personally, I love it! I think I would be charmed to meet a Cielo.
A somewhat related name that I love is Celia, meaning ‘heavenly’.
Ciel and Cielo are both masculine nouns in french and spanish respectively. So I prefer to use them on the appropriate gender.
I’ve recently started thinking a lot about Cielo – maybe it is in part to all the kids that go by Sky. I like the soft “s” sound and L of Ciel and Cielo; I do think that Ciela/ Ciella would be a nice way to honor a Graciela or Graziella.
Also, I really like the new “More Names to Consider” addition to the site.