Calleigh

Calleigh is another one of those confused respellings. Most likely Caleigh is pronounced like KAY-lee and Calleigh like KAL-lee. Therefore it seems reasonable to assume that Calleigh is more or less a fanciful respelling of Callie, which is typically considered a pet form of Calista. Calista in turn has two possible etymological origins, one Greek and one Latin. The Greek word “kallista” means “fairest, most beautiful” and the Latin word “calix” means “cup” (specifically the cup used for the wine during the Christian sacrament). From the Greek perspective, “kallista” is associated with Callisto, the mythological virginal nymph who followed Artemis (the goddess of the hunt). The king of gods, Zeus (Artemis’s father) became so enraptured with the beautiful Callisto that he disguised himself to trick her into his embrace, and she bore him a son Arcas. Artemis was so angered by her father’s indiscretion that she shot Callisto with her silver arrow to avenge her mother Hera. Zeus took pity on the nymph and his son, so he turned them into bears and set them in the night sky as stars (known as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor which translates to Larger Bear and Smaller Bear in Latin). Callie has also been traditionally used as a nickname for girls named Caroline (from the Germanic Karl meaning “free man”). Lastly, we should mention that Kali is a Sanskrit transcription (काली) of a Hindu goddess of destruction whose name means “the black one”.