Messiah comes from the Hebrew mashiach and means "anointed one", the title given in the Bible to kings and priests and, in Christian belief, to Jesus. Handel's oratorio Messiah made the word familiar as a name for a work of art, and in the 2000s American parents began using it as a first name with the same confident spirit as King and Prince. Messiah entered the US top 1000 in 2005, peaked at number 172 in 2021 and ranks number 207 in 2025.