Christel
A feminine name of German origin meaning "follower or anointed one of Christ".
Name Census estimates that about 3,166 living Americans carry the first name Christel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Christel today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Christel births was 1978 (201 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Christel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Christel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 108,261 Americans
Peak year
1978
201 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,532
Tracked since 1912
Census
Christel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,833 people with the first name Christel, which placed it at #4,018 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,018
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,833 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Christel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Christel is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Black (12.9%) and Hispanic (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Christel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Christel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.7% · 3,561
- Black or African American12.9% · 625
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 315
- Two or more races3.2% · 156
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 139
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 37
Popularity
Christel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Christel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 1,541 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Christel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Christel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Christels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Christel, while Mississippi, Kansas, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 54 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Christel
The name Christel is a feminine given name of German origin. It is a contracted form of the name Christina, which is derived from the Greek name Christos, meaning "anointed" or "Christ." The name Christina is a combination of the Greek words "christos" (anointed) and "phero" (to bear or carry).
The name Christel gained popularity in Germany during the Middle Ages, as Christianity spread across Europe. It was a common name among German communities and was often given to girls born around Christmas time or on the feast day of St. Christina, a 3rd-century Christian martyr.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Christel is found in a 13th-century German manuscript, where it is mentioned as the name of a noblewoman from the region of Saxony. In the 14th century, the name appears in various records and chronicles from German-speaking regions, such as the Duchy of Bavaria and the Electorate of Saxony.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Christel. One of the most famous was Christel Dehilloten (1868-1944), a German artist and illustrator known for her depictions of fairy tales and children's stories. Another notable Christel was Christel Schulze (1900-1989), a German actress who appeared in numerous films during the 1930s and 1940s.
In the realm of literature, Christel Beilenberg (1936-2007) was a German author and poet who wrote extensively about her experiences growing up in East Germany during the Cold War era. Christel Burchardt (1927-2018) was a German philosopher and academic who made significant contributions to the fields of social theory and critical theory.
Finally, Christel Sembach-Krone (1936-2021) was a German economist and politician who served as a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1994, representing the Christian Democratic Union party.
People
Christel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Christel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Christel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Christel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,166 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Christel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 108,261 US residents.
Is Christel a common name?
We classify Christel as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,711 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Christel most popular?
The single biggest year for Christel was 1978, when 201 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Christel is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Christel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,833 people with the name Christel, or 1.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,018 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Christel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Christel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Christel appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,840 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Christel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Christel is White at 73.7%. The next largest groups are Black (12.9%) and Hispanic (6.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Christel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Christel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.7% (3,561 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Christel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Christel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Christel in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Christel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Christel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Christel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Christel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.