Christopher

Where Christopher comes from

From Late Latin Christophorus, from Koine Greek Χρῑστόφορος (Khrīstóphoros, “carrier of Christ”), from Ancient Greek Χριστός (Khristós, “Christ”) + φόρος (phóros, “carrier, bearer”), from φέρειν (phérein, “to carry, to bear”) + -ος (-os, “-er: forming agent nouns”), from the legend of Saint Christopher carrying the infant Jesus across a river.
— Wiktionary's entry for Christopher
  • Ancient Greek
  • 3 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #142 among boys — 95 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1922
    Christopher Lee born
    English actor and singer
  3. 1929
    Christopher Plummer born
    Canadian actor
  4. 1984
    Peak, #2
    60,021 babies named Christopher — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1997
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #4.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Christopher Lee · English actor and singer, 1922–2015
  • Christopher Plummer · Canadian actor, 1929–2021
  • Christopher Marlowe · English dramatist, poet and translator, 1564–1593
  • Christopher Wren · English architect, 1632–1723
  • Christopher Hitchens · English American author and journalist, 1949–2011

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.