Callisto
A feminine name of Greek mythology meaning "most beautiful".
Name Census estimates that about 101 living Americans carry the first name Callisto. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Callisto today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Callisto births was 2022 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Callisto. 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 Callisto with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
101
~ 1 in 3,393,607 Americans
Peak year
2022
17 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,592
Tracked since 1998
Gender
Gender distribution for Callisto
Callisto is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 102 total registrations, 25 (24.5%) were male and 77 (75.5%) were female.
Callisto as a male name
- Ranked #12,592 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (8 births)
Callisto as a female name
- Ranked #13,748 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (9 births)
Popularity
Callisto: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Callisto from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 46 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Callisto 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 Callisto during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Callisto
Callisto is a name with its roots in ancient Greek mythology. It derives from the Greek words "kallos" meaning beauty and "istos" meaning last, signifying the most beautiful or unsurpassed in beauty. The name was borne by a nymph in Greek mythology, one of the followers of the goddess Artemis.
According to the myth, Callisto was a beautiful virgin huntress who caught the eye of Zeus, the king of the gods. He seduced her by taking the form of Artemis herself. When Callisto's pregnancy was discovered, the enraged Artemis transformed her into a bear. Later, Callisto's son Arcas, a hunter, caught sight of the bear and was about to slay it when Zeus intervened and placed them both in the heavens as constellations, Callisto as Ursa Major (the Great Bear) and Arcas as Ursa Minor (the Little Bear).
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Callisto is in Hesiod's Theogony, an ancient Greek poem dating back to around the 8th century BC, which recounts the myths of the gods and the creation of the world. The name also appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Roman mythological narrative written in the 1st century AD.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Callisto. One of the earliest was Callisto of Lesbos, a Greek lyric poet from the 7th century BC. Another was Callisto, a Greek historian from the 5th century BC who wrote a work on the history of Samothrace.
In the 16th century, Callisto Piazza (1500-1561) was an Italian philosopher and mathematician who made significant contributions to the study of conic sections. Callisto Quarantotti (1608-1667) was an Italian painter and engraver known for his religious works and portraits.
More recently, Callisto Cosulich (1863-1952) was an Italian businessman and philanthropist who founded the Cosulich shipping company and made donations to various charitable causes in his lifetime.
People
Callisto + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Callisto 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
Callisto: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Callisto?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 101 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Callisto 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 3,393,607 US residents.
Is Callisto a common name?
We classify Callisto as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 102 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Callisto most popular?
The single biggest year for Callisto was 2022, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Callisto is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Callisto in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Callisto a female name?
Yes, 75.5% of people registered as Callisto 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 Callisto still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Callisto 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 Callisto 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How common is the name Callisto?
You can see how many people share the name Callisto on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.