Christian

Where Christian comes from

From Middle English Cristien, from Old French chrestien, from Latin Chrīstiānus, from Ancient Greek Χρῑστιᾱνός (Khrīstiānós), from Χρῑστός (Khrīstós, “Christ, anointed [one]”) + Latin suffix -ānus. The older form is Christen. Doublet of cretin. By surface analysis, Christ + -ian.
— Wiktionary's entry for Christian
  • Ancient Greek
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #252 among boys — 43 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1959
    Christian Wulff born
    10th German Federal President
  3. 1974
    Christian Bale born
    American-English actor
  4. 2006
    Peak, #21
    14,487 babies named Christian — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2017
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #52.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Ancient Greek found in England since the twelfth century.
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek of medieval usage, rare today.
  • An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia, United States.
Namesakes
  • Christian Bale · American-English actor, born 1974
  • Christian Wulff · 10th German Federal President, born 1959
  • Christian Dopplerr · Austrian mathematician and physicist, 1803–1853
  • Christian Dior · French fashion designer, 1905–1957
  • Christian Eriksen · Danish association football player, born 1992

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.