Christoph

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Christophe in FR France, US United States, BE Belgium and 8 more, Krzysztof in PL Poland, GB United Kingdom, CZ Czechia and 3 more and Christopher in ES Spain, PH Philippines.

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 22 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◐

Christoph is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name37K records spelled Christoph5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Switzerland, Colombia

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Çhristoph

• Polish given name8.4K records spelled Christoph28 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, United States, Czechia, Russia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Christophe, Кристоф, Крістоф, Kristof, Christof

• Croatian surname1.4K records spelled Christoph41 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Croatia, United States, Belgium

  Languages: Croatian, Czech, Bulgarian

  Also written Krištof, Christophe, Kristof, Кристоф, Kristoff

79 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●

Christoph is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, from Greek Christophoros 'Christ-bearer'

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

• In German, Patronym zu Christoph; ph-Variante. 2796 Tokens.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

• In German, Patronym/Familienname zu Christoph; die Plate demonstriert f- und ph-Varianten im Konsonantismus.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

• In German, ) Christof; Kristof: männl.

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

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) — 71 years between 1952–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Johann Christoph Bach IIIb. 1671DEOrganist in Ohrdruf
• Christoph Willibald Gluckb. 1714ATopera composer (1714–1787)
• Johann Christoph Friedrich Bachb. 1732DEGerman musician and composer (1732–1795)
• Christoph Martin Wielandb. 1733DEGerman poet and writer (1733–1813)
• Friedrich Schillerb. 1759DEnot in their usual nameGerman playwright, poet, philosopher and historian (1759–1805)
• Christoph Wilhelm Hufelandb. 1762DEGerman physician (1762–1836)
• Christoph Waltzb. 1956ATAustrian and German actor
• Christoph Metzelderb. 1980DEGerman footballer (born 1980)
• Christoph Kramerb. 1991DEGerman association football player
• Leon Goretzkab. 1995DEnot in their usual nameGerman 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 · 347 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Christoph?

We estimate roughly 2.6 million people bear Christoph (counting its spellings and scripts) across 15 countries in our records.

In which country does Christoph have the most bearers?

We estimate about 1.5 million people bear Christoph in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled christophe.

Where is Christoph most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Christoph is densest in Poland — about 1 in 61 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Christoph compared with other names?

In the United States, Christoph is the 965th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Christoph a male or female name?

Christoph 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 Christoph mean?

Recorded meaning: German surname from Christoph/Christoffel < gr.