Celestial and sky names

Every name links to its full page: meaning, origin, and its real popularity curve since 1890.

Stella Latin · "star," the word itself, set alight as a name in Renaissance sonnets; a favorite of the early 1900s reborn on the celestial wave. Bright, brief, and impossible to misspell

Celeste Latin · "heavenly, of the sky"

Sterling English · "little star" or "of high quality"

Estella Latin · from 'stella', meaning 'star'

Selena Greek · "moon goddess"

Aurora Latin · "dawn," the Roman goddess who opened the gates of morning; poets kept it alive for centuries, Sleeping Beauty gave it a princess, and the celestial wave carried it into the top tier. Rory and Auri hide inside its four syllables

Essie Persian · traditionally star (diminutive of Esther)

Rhea Greek · Titan goddess of Greek mythology, mother of the Olympian gods

Roxanne Persian · little star, radiant

Roxie Persian · traditionally little star, radiant

Cynthia Greek · from Greek Kynthia, 'woman from Cynthus,' an epithet of Artemis; associated with the moon goddess but not literally meaning 'moon goddess'

Esther Persian · star

Celine French · form of Celina, related to Latin caelum "heaven"

Roxanna Persian · little star, dawn (variant of Roxana)

Selina Greek · variant of Selene, the moon

Celina Greek · variant of Selena, traditionally associated with 'moon'

Sol Latin · two names in one: a short form of Solomon (Hebrew shalom, "peace") and the word for "sun" in Spanish or Portuguese

Alpha Greek · first

Celestine Latin · heavenly, celestial

Luna Latin · "the moon," and the Roman goddess who drove its chariot across the night sky; centuries of use in Spanish- and Italian-speaking families, then a spectacular 2010s ascent across languages. The signature name of the celestial wave

Twila English · modern coinage, likely evoking 'twilight'

Venus Latin · traditionally goddess of love

Estrella Spanish · star, from Latin stella

Araceli Latin · 'altar of heaven', a Spanish Marian devotional title

Estela Spanish · Spanish form of Estelle, Latin for 'star'

Roxy Persian · diminutive of Roxanne, traditionally 'dawn' or 'bright star'

Starr English · variant spelling of "star"

Carina Latin · from Latin carina, 'keel'; also used as a form of Karin/Katherine meaning 'pure'

Heaven English · from the word "heaven"

Lucio Latin · Italian/Spanish form of Lucius, 'light'

Lyra Greek · "lyre", also the constellation

Tara Sanskrit · star (shares spelling with the Irish/English name Tara; a favorite dual-culture pick)

Aditya Sanskrit · the sun; a name of the Hindu sun god

Elio Italian · Italian form of Roman name Aelius, popularly linked to Greek 'helios' (sun)

Nova Latin · "new," from novus; in astronomy the star that flares suddenly bright, which is roughly what the name did in the 2010s. A word-name with scientific shine and a built-in origin story

Salena Modern American · a respelling of Selena, from Greek Selene, goddess of the moon

Sky English · the sky; nature/vocabulary word, ultimately from Old Norse sky

Starla English · modern coinage based on 'star'

Tarek Arabic · one who knocks at night; morning star

Skyla English · modern feminine elaboration of Sky/Skylar

Star English · word name for a celestial body

Twyla English · modern coinage, possibly derived from 'twilight' or 'twin'

Zion Hebrew · a sacred hill in Jerusalem, symbol of a promised homeland; a name rich with spiritual meaning

Alora English · modern coinage, possibly a blend involving Aurora

Chandra Sanskrit · moon; part of the name of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate known for the Chandrasekhar limit

Danika Slavic · means 'morning star'

Dian Latin · An archaic poetic short form of Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt, used this way by Shakespeare

Eris Greek · Greek goddess of strife and discord; also a dwarf planet

Estell Latin · a spelling variant of Estelle, from Old French estelle, star, ultimately Latin stella

Artemis Greek · Greek goddess of the hunt; etymology uncertain

Halley English · surname meaning 'hall meadow'; known from Halley's Comet

Aries Latin · ram; zodiac constellation name

Lani Hawaiian · sky, heaven, royal

Phoebe Greek · bright, radiant, shining one

Ravi Sanskrit · the sun; a classic still used across generations

Tarik Arabic · traditionally "morning star," linked to the historical figure Tariq ibn Ziyad

Zaria Modern · possibly based on Zahra or the Nigerian city of Zaria

Bituin Filipino · star

Elysia Greek · from Elysium, the paradise of Greek mythology

Keilani Hawaiian · heavenly glory, from kai (sea) and lani (sky)

Lucero Spanish · morning star, bright light

Lucia Spanish · light; Spain's #1 girls' name for over a decade running

Nour Arabic · light (a popular unisex name across the Arab American community)

Solana Spanish · sunshine, from Spanish sol

Tala Filipino · star, specifically the guiding morning star

Cielo Spanish · Spanish word meaning 'sky, heaven'

Kailani Hawaiian · sea and sky

Kamaria Swahili · traditionally 'like the moon' (from Arabic qamar)

Kiana Hawaiian · divine, moon goddess

Malani Hawaiian · traditionally interpreted as 'peaceful heaven', from Hawaiian malu/malie (calm) and lani (sky)

Sahar Arabic · dawn, the hour before sunrise

Skyler Dutch · scholar

Soleil French · French word for 'sun'

Anjelica Modern American · a modern respelling of Angelica, from Latin/Greek angelos, messenger, angelic

Atlas Greek · the enduring one who holds the sky

Chanda Uncertain · Sanskrit, from chandra, moon, an epithet of the goddess Durga; American use since the 1970s may be an independent coinage, not direct borrowing.

Meena Sanskrit · fish (Pisces in Hindu astrology)

Meilani Hawaiian · coined name meaning roughly 'heavenly' (lani = sky)

Novalee Latin · modern blend of Nova ('new') and Lee

Skye Scottish · place, sky

Thien Vietnamese · heavenly, divine

Aleyna Turkish · modern Turkish coinage, often glossed as 'moon-faced' or 'beautiful'

Angely Greek · modern coinage, elaboration of Angel/Angela with a French-style '-ly' ending

Arun Sanskrit · the reddish glow of dawn; in Hindu tradition Aruna is the charioteer of the sun (Sanskrit). A quiet crossover workhorse: two syllables, a near-homophone of Aaron, and common across three generations of Tamil families, which makes it one of the safest heritage-plus-playground picks in the tradition

Dara Khmer · star; from Sanskrit tara. A true unisex classic and a great accidental crossover: the same spelling exists as an Irish name and a Persian one, so Cambodian American kids rarely have to explain it twice

Estelle French · star

Kalani Hawaiian · the sky, the heavens; royal one

Khamari African American · modern coinage, possibly rooted in 'qamar,' moon

Kiran Sanskrit · ray of light; a unisex name used since the first big wave of Indian American immigration, and a near-homophone of the Irish name Kieran ("dark-haired"); two unrelated names, same sound, used across both communities

Laniyah Hawaiian · modern coinage built on 'lani,' traditionally 'sky, heaven'

Nalani Hawaiian · from Hawaiian lani: the heavens, or the royal chiefs

Neveah English · modern coinage, 'heaven' spelled backward

Noor Arabic · light

Tariq Arabic · morning star, one who knocks

Uriel Hebrew · God is my light

Xitlali Native-American · from Nahuatl 'citlali,' meaning 'star'

Aarush Sanskrit · first ray of the sun

Aloun Lao · dawn (the Lao form of Sanskrit aruna, cognate with Thai Arun; Lao pronunciation renders the r as l)

Aylin Turkish · moon halo, of the moon

Chanthavy Lao · of the moon (chan, from Sanskrit chandra); a classic Lao girls' name

Dhruv Sanskrit · fixed, immovable (the pole star in Hindu myth)

Douangchanh Lao · the orb of the moon, the full moon (douang = orb, disc + chanh = moon)

Halo Greek · ring of light around the sun or moon

Kirana Indonesian · ray of light

Latsamy Lao · ray of light, radiance (from Sanskrit rasmi, in the Lao pronunciation that turns r toward l); also spelled Ratsamy

Lux Latin · light

Munir Arabic · luminous, giving light (from nawwara, 'to illuminate')

Nguyet Vietnamese · moon; written Nguyệt in Vietnamese. A grandparent-generation classic among Vietnamese Americans, nearly always spelled without diacritics in the US; the ng- opening (roughly nwyet) is the sound English speakers stumble on, so families often set it as a middle name beside an easier first

Novah Latin · variant of Nova, from the Latin novus, 'new'

Orion Greek · traditionally son of fire; hunter constellation

Rayleigh English · modern coinage, feminine elaboration of Ray, 'beam of light'

Sengchanh Lao · moonlight (seng = light + chanh = moon)

Sengdao Lao · starlight (seng = light + dao = star, the same dao Thai families use)

Seren Welsh · star

Sitara Urdu · star

Thongsavanh Lao · golden heaven (thong = gold + savanh = heaven, from Sanskrit svarga)

Vega Spanish · meadow, fertile plain; a rising modern Spain name that also names the bright star Vega, evoking the Spanish landscape

Araw Filipino · sun

Arunny Khmer · dawn light; from Sanskrit aruna

Chan Khmer · moon; from Sanskrit chandra. Equally common as a family name, and since Khmer order puts the family name first, US refugee paperwork sometimes turned Chan family names into American first names

All 257 celestial names, A to Z

Celestial and sky names

All 257 celestial names, A to Z

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