Cristóbal

Most often seen with a diacritical mark over the O, Cristóbal is the Spanish version of Christopher, which is derived from a combination of Greek words: 'Christos', meaning 'Christ', and 'phero', meaning 'to bear' or 'to carry'. So we say the name means 'Christ-bearer'.

The name Christopher was, and still is, wildly popular in America; it has ranked in the top 100 names since the 1940s and even reached as high as #2 in the 1980s and '90s. Cristóbal, though, has never enjoyed the same level of popularity; it does rank in the top 1000 most popular names, but has hovered close to the bottom since 1975. Its peak popularity was in 2001, when the name got all the way up to #708. This is probably because these are the top names in the United States only, a predominantly English-speaking country where Christopher is a lot easier for the general population to pronounce. But in Spanish-speaking countries, Cristóbal is still a very popular name — on par with Christopher here in the States.

Many countries have their own version of Christopher, just like Spain's Cristóbal; in Portuguese it's Cristóvão, in Irish it's Críostóir, in Polish it's Krzysztof, in Macedonian, Serbian, and Bulgarian, it's Hristofor. And that's just the tip of the world's Christopher-obsessed iceberg!

Notable Cristóbals include fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga; Spanish explorer Cristóbal Colombo (known in the U.S. as Christopher Columbus); painter Cristóbal Rojas; and baseball hall-of-famer Cristóbal Torriente.

Cristóbal in quotes:

"The world is yours, Cristóbal. Go and conquer it." — Christopher Columbus's mother, in the movie '1492: Conquest of Paradise'

"Cristóbal, you are a great artist. You have a gift that must be shared with the world." — Cristobal Rojas's teacher, in the movie 'Cristóbal Rojas'