Chris

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Cris in PH Philippines, BR Brazil, MX Mexico and 5 more, Krish in IN India and Kris in BE Belgium.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Chris is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name423K records spelled Chris46 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Philippines

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Chrís, Chrïs, Čhrïs, Çhris, Çhrïs

• French given name163K records spelled Chris5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Chris', Chrîs, Chrïs

• Hungarian given name13K records spelled Chris4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Hungary, Finland, United Kingdom

  Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Čhris

• a separate given name9.5K records spelled Chris24 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Norway, United Kingdom, New Zealand

  Also written Chriş, Ćhrïs, Ćhris, Chrïs, Čhrïs

83 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Chris is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A diminutive of the male given names Christopher or (less commonly) Christian.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Chris är ursprungligen en engelsk smekform, som kvinnonamn till → Christin och → Christina; som mansnamn till → Christoffer och → Christian.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, from Zacharias

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• English: 1 (m.) Short form of CHRISTOPHER . 2 (f.) Short form of CHRISTINE and the group of related female names. Top

  as a word

• In Danish, a male given name from English borrowed from English

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Christopher Lloydb. 1938USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1938)
• Chris Cooperb. 1951USAmerican actor (1951-)
• Chris Columbusb. 1958USAmerican filmmaker (born 1958)
• Chris Buckb. 1960USAmerican animator and film director
• Chris Cornellb. 1964USAmerican musician (1964–2017)
• Chris Williamsb. 1968CAAmerican animator, film director and screenwriter
• Chris O'Donnellb. 1970USAmerican actor
• Chris Terriob. 1976USAmerican film director
• Chris Hughesb. 1983USAmerican entrepreneur
• Chris Woodb. 1991NZNew Zealand association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,260 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Chris?

We estimate roughly 360 thousand people bear Chris (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Chris have the most bearers?

Chris is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled chris.

How common is Chris compared with other names?

In the United Kingdom, Chris is the 65th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.

Is Chris a male or female name?

Chris is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Chris mean?

Recorded meaning: ,2 Short form of Christopher, and of Christine and the group of related girls’ names.