Callie is a short form of Caroline, "free woman", and of Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, whose Greek name means "beautiful voice"; through the Greek kallos it is most often read simply as "beautiful". It was used as a name of its own in the American South from the 19th century on. Callie ranked 321st in the United States in 2000, peaked at number 165 in 2020 and has stayed in the 170s and 180s since, ranking 175th in 2025.