Chris
Meaning
diminutive of Christopher/Christian, from Greek 'Christophoros', 'bearing Christ'
The story
Chris is a short form of Christopher, Christian, Christine and other names that begin with Chris, says Behind the Name, and Christopher itself means "bearing Christ", from Christos and the Greek phero, "to bear, to carry". The American ledger records the short form on both sides at midcentury scale: about 25,900 boys in the 1950s and about 56,300 in the 1960s, alongside about 6,400 girls in the 1950s and about 11,300 in the 1960s, then the long easing on both lines, down to about 2,390 boys and a few dozen girls so far this decade. Brazil counts about 620, split between men and women. Four formal names standing behind one syllable, and a ledger that once wrote it tens of thousands of times a decade.
The formal names behind Chris
Chris is an established short form of each of these names.
Christopher · Greek origin · bearing Christ
Christina · Greek origin · from Christiana, the Latin feminine form of Christian, 'a Christian'
Christine · French origin · French form of Christina, from Christianus, 'a Christian'
Christian · Greek origin · from the medieval Latin Christianus, 'a Christian' (Christos, 'anointed', at the root)
Chris's name family
One shared root links 5 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: from Greek Christophoros "bearing Christ", the medieval traveler's saint
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Chris peaked in the 1960s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
623 people · the #11,496 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 25
Among people named Chris living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 52 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Chris
Most people given the name Chris in the United States were born between 1960 and 1989. The Chris you meet today is most often in his 50s or 60s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Chris deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Chris truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Chris fits with your family’s names and surname.
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