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
Christopher through the years
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #142 among boys, with 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, the most in any year.
  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.