Celestial Baby Names: 20 Names That Mean Star

Celestial names are flying high right now, with the likes of Luna and Stella already firm starbaby favorites — used by the likes of Matt Damon, Ellen Pompeo, Uma Thurman, and more recently Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.

And it’s not just celebrity parents who are looking to the stars for baby name inspiration: fresher celestial choices like Lyra, Nova and Orion have also been shooting up the charts in recent years, as parents look further afield for novel nature-inspired names.

Astrology names inspired by your child's zodiac sign are a good place to look, but even more helpful is your zodiac sign, which reveals your baby name style and how you go about the process. You can read about your sign in our new tool Zodiac Names.

From Altair to Vega, there is a gorgeous array of names belonging to individual stars and constellations, but how about all of the brilliant baby names with “star” in their meaning?

Here are 20 of our favorites!

Names That Mean Star

Astraea

Fresher than Aurora, but with the same pretty yet powerful appeal. Like Aurora, it's among the many great mythological names for girls. In Greek mythology, Astraea is the goddess of justice, innocence and purity, but it was also the code name used by pioneering author, spy and modern-day feminist icon Aphra Behn.

Citlali

Also spelled Citlalli, this sweet unisex Nahuatl name briefly rose into the US Top 1000 for girls between 1999 and 2006.

Danica

The personification of the morning star in Slavic folklore, Danica sounds like a cross between Danielle and Monica, but feels far fresher than both. The Slavic pronunciation is “DAH-nee-tsa”. You may associate it with Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper in the old The Wonder Years show.

Dara

A soft yet strong unisex name with roots in several languages, Dara means “star” in Khmer, but its other meanings include “gift” (Serbian), “fruitful” (Irish Gaelic) and “wealthy” (Persian).

Elanor

It looks like a modern variation on the classic Eleanor, but this spelling is actually a subtle literary name. It belongs to a character in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, named after a beautiful golden flower. Its Sindarin meaning is “star sun”.

Estrella

Frilly and fiery in equal measure, Estrella is the Spanish word for “star”. It ranks in the Mexican Top 100 and the US Top 1000, just behind its slightly more popular sisters Estella and Estelle.

Hester

An underused vintage variant of Esther, steeped in literary history. Nathaniel Hawthorne used it for the heroine of his 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, and more recently British authors Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials) and Philip Reeve (Mortal Engines) have also created characters by the name.

Itri

This short and sparky boys’ name means “star” in the Berber languages of North Africa. It would make for a unique — yet uncomplicated and on-trend — choice for parents in other parts of the world.

Izar

Pronounced “ee-SAHR”, this striking celestial baby name comes from the historically isolated Basque region of northern Spain. It’s traditionally feminine, but could certainly work for a boy as well.

Maristela

Like the balletic Marianela, this elaborate Spanish and Portuguese name originated as a combination of Maria and Estela. It can also be a Marian name: from Stella Maris “Our Lady, Star of the Sea,” guide and protector of seafarers and coastal communities.

Namid

A solid-sounding Ojibwa name with the gloriously evocative meaning of “star dancer”.

Réaltín

Pronounced “RAYL-teen”, this intriguing Irish name, meaning “little star”, has become more popular in its homeland in recent years, following in the footsteps of Róisín (“little rose”) and other names ending in the diminutive suffix -ín.

Seren

Ranking highly in its native Wales, sweet Seren is a popular celestial choice which remains relatively unknown outside of the UK. The Cornish Steren, also meaning “star”, is a steelier alternative.

Sidra

This surprisingly international name lays claim to several different origins, from Arabic to Hebrew to Latin, in which it is derived from sidereus “of the stars”.

Sitara

A beautiful Urdu name related to the Persian Setareh or Setare “star”.

Sterling

The currency which shares this distinguished-sounding name is so called because some of the early Norman coins were marked with a small star symbol (Middle English: steorra “star” + diminutive suffix –ling).

Twila

One of the many proposed origins for this bewitching name is that it may be a Cajun corruption of étoile, the French word for “star”. It may also have arisen from the English word “twilight”, making this a double night-sky name with an influential namesake in dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Vesper

Eva Green’s mysterious Bond girl Vesper Lynd put this unique name on the baby-naming map, but its origins are in Greek and Roman mythology, in which it belonged to the (male) personification of the evening star.

Yvaine

Although it was likely inspired by the masculine Yvain or by the similar Igraine, both from Arthurian legend, Neil Gaiman’s character in Stardust lends the name a celestial secondary meaning: “My sisters called me Yvaine, for I was an evening star”.

Zeke

Usually encountered as a cool short form of Ezekiel, Zeke can also be a standalone name of Arabic and Aramaic origin, meaning “shooting star”.