The baby name Celeste hits a sweet spot – it’s familiar, but not too common. Add in elegant style and a great meaning, and this could be a great name for a daughter.
Thanks to Another for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
HEAVENLY CELESTE
This name sounds antique, and that tracks. We need to go back to the ancient world. The Latin caelestis means heavenly.
Caelestis and Caelestinus were used as personal names in late Latin, but the history books usually list them as Celestine. Popes – five of them – answered to Celestine between the 400s and the 1200s.
Feminine forms like Celestia, Celestria, and Celestina occurred, too.
So did Celeste.
Born in 1600, Virginia Galilei grew up as the eldest daughter of world-changing astronomer Galileo Galilei. She took religious orders while still in her teens. Virginia adopted the name Maria Celeste, honoring both her faith and her father’s calling.
The name’s dual connection to the heavens and the night sky persisted over the years. In 1801, French astronomer Jerome Lalande and the staff of the Paris Observatory published Histoire Céleste Française, a major star catalog.
And so the baby name Celeste carries a dual meaning: both scientific achievement and spirituality, balanced in two short syllables.
MUSICAL CELESTA
Musical references surround this delicate name.
First, a celesta looks a little like an upright piano. It’s a late nineteenth century and early twentieth century instrument. You’ve probably heard it in Tchaikovsky’s “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” in The Nutcracker. The celesta offers a magical, enchanted sound.
If you know your opera, there’s “Celeste Aida” – heavenly Aida, from the famous Verdi opera.
There’s more. The voix celeste – heavenly voice – is an organ stop. And Celeste de Longpré Heckscher composed her own works in the early twentieth century.
TURN OF THE CENTURY
The baby name Celeste appears in the US Top 1000 from 1880 – the first year for which data is available – right up through today.
A handful of references from the late 1800s and early 1900s include:
Tennessee Celeste Claflin opened a Wall Street brokerage firm with her sister way back in 1870. Tennie C. also ran for Congress, while her sister, Victoria Woodhull, ran for president. They’re fascinating figures.
In 1872, the abandoned ship Mary Celeste was discovered floating in the Atlantic. Despite being seaworthy and well-supplied, the crew abandoned ship. The mystery commanded headlines – both in 1872, and in subsequent years. Theories and tales appeared steadily into the 1920s; it still turns up on historical sites and shows today.
If you visited the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, you would have seen Le Grand Globe Céleste – a theater showing a movie of the solar system, in the shape of a giant sphere.
BY THE NUMBERS
The baby name Celeste ranks in the US Top 1000 every year since 1880, but has never appeared in the Top 200.
Maybe that’s because we’re lacking a fictional – or real – Celeste to put this name on parents’ radar. It spiked in use briefly after Six Figures Under gave the name to a character during the fourht season, taking the name to #204 in 2004.
You might think of Celeste, the elephant queen and wife of Babar, from Jean de Brunhoff’s children’s books.
And The Originals/Vampire Diaries also featured a character by the name.
As of 2018, the baby name Celeste ranked a relatively rare #441.
TWO SYLLABLES OR THREE?
The baby name Celeste is pronounced with two syllables in English. That’s true for French and German, too. But say it in Spanish or Italian, and it’s three syllables – the final ‘e’ makes an ‘ay’ sound.
Either way, Celeste feels polished. It’s a pretty name, but far from frilly. It fits with French names for girls, like Genevieve and Madeleine. But unlike those names, the baby name Celeste seems stuck in style limbo.
That might make it the perfect opportunity: a great meaning, a host of intriguing associations from opera to the heavens, and a tailored, but delicate sound.
The baby name Celeste fits in and stands out – making it the compromise choice many parents seek.
Would you consider the baby name Celeste for a daughter?
First published on October 23, 2008, this post was revised and republished on August 20, 2012, and again on June 15, 2020.
I like my name a lot. I like the meaning of it too. It didn’t even occur to me that my name rhymed with molest. I don’t like nick-names to begin with, so that doesn’t phase me. I’m Hispanic so it’s pronounced in Spanish, but they(my family) shorten it to Celes. My middle name, which sounds so much better in Spanish, is Abigail. Celeste Abigail.
Celestine in English sounds better than in Spanish to me. I like Ciel, reminds me of Black Butler… But my sister’s name is pretty too. Lidia.
I prefer Celesta, with an A. I just think it sounds and looks better. And Celesta is not a name in Babar the way Celeste is.
Celeste is pretty, but I personally prefer Celestia nicknamed Tia.
Celeste and Celestine are lovely names. One of Cameron Dokey’s novels has a character named Celestial “Celeste”, which I rather like as well (the character’s full name, Celestial Heavens, is a bit redundant but whatever).
I love Celeste! If I didn’t have an aversion to reusing first initials, it would be close to the top of my list for another girl. I went to high school with a Celeste, and I only remember everyone saying how beautiful and unique her name was.
I think Celeste is great. I knew it wasn’t overused but I was surprised to read that it is becoming less popular. Love both pronunciations. I think for nicknames you could do Celie or Lessa (reminds me of a character in a book I read, so I like this one) or one poster mentiond CC. Celestine is nice enough, though I don’t like it on a man, but Celestina reminds me of a character from a Spanish novel, not such a nice character, so totally unusable to me. As for Celine, I love this spelled Selene. Selena is also nice, though I prefer that Salena.