Citlalli
A feminine Mexican name meaning "star" or "celestial".
Name Census estimates that about 2,342 living Americans carry the first name Citlalli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Citlalli today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Citlalli births was 2001 (413 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Citlalli. 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.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 146,351 Americans
Peak year
2001
413 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,036
Tracked since 1989
Census
Citlalli in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,264 people with the first name Citlalli, which placed it at #6,914 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
#6,914
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,264 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
97.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Citlalli
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Citlalli is Hispanic at 97.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.5%). 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 Citlalli 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 Citlalli at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino97.7% · 2,212
- White1.2% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 11
- Black or African American0.3% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 4
- Two or more races0.2% · 4
Popularity
Citlalli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Citlalli from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,390 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Citlalli 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 Citlalli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Citlallis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Citlalli, while Wisconsin, Oregon, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 120 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Citlalli
Citlalli is a given name of Nahuatl origin, the language spoken by the Aztecs and other groups in central Mexico before the Spanish conquest. The name is derived from the Nahuatl words "citlalli" meaning "star" and "citlallin" meaning "little star" or "star child."
The name has been in use since ancient times in the region that is now Mexico. It was a common name among the Aztecs and other Nahua peoples, who had a rich mythology and cosmology centered around celestial bodies, including stars and constellations. The name likely reflects their reverence for the stars and their importance in their belief systems.
Citlalli was the name of a goddess in Aztec mythology, associated with the stars and often depicted as a woman with star-shaped symbols on her clothing or body. She was considered one of the thirteen lords of the day in the Aztec calendar system.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Citlalli dates back to the 16th century, when it appears in the Codex Mendoza, a Mesoamerican codex created around 1542 that documented the history, culture, and tribute paid to the Aztec Empire. The name is listed as one of the names given to children born on certain days according to the Aztec calendar.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Citlalli:
1. Citlalli (c. 1460 - c. 1520), a Nahua woman who was one of the few female rulers in the Aztec Empire. She governed the city-state of Nahuatzen in present-day Michoacán, Mexico.
2. Citlalli Tonalli (fl. 16th century), an Aztec princess and daughter of the emperor Moctezuma II. She played a role in the negotiations between the Aztecs and the Spanish conquistadors during the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
3. Citlalli Itzcoatl (1903 - 1984), a Mexican artist and printmaker known for her woodcuts and engravings depicting indigenous Mexican themes and culture.
4. Citlalli Rovirosa-Madrazo (1923 - 2020), a Mexican anthropologist and archaeologist who specialized in the study of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico, particularly the Maya.
5. Citlalli Tonalli Gonzalez Molina (born 1990), a Mexican singer-songwriter and musician, known for her work in the Latin pop and folk genres, incorporating elements of indigenous Mexican music.
People
Citlalli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Citlalli 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
Citlalli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Citlalli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,342 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Citlalli 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 146,351 US residents.
Is Citlalli a common name?
We classify Citlalli as "Rare". It ranks above 94.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,380 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Citlalli most popular?
The single biggest year for Citlalli was 2001, when 413 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Citlalli is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Citlalli in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,264 people with the name Citlalli, or 0.75 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,914 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 Citlalli 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 Citlalli?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Citlalli appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,260 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Citlalli?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Citlalli is Hispanic at 97.7%. The next largest groups are White (1.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.5%). 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 Citlalli most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Citlalli in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.7% (2,212 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 Citlalli in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Citlalli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Citlalli 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 Citlalli still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Citlalli 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 Citlalli 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 Americans are named Citlalli?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.