Cagney
A masculine name derived from the Irish surname meaning "descendant of motion".
Name Census estimates that about 278 living Americans carry the first name Cagney. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 63.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Cagney today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cagney births was 1985 (61 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cagney. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
278
~ 1 in 1,232,929 Americans
Peak year
1985
61 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2011 SSA rank
#12,567
Tracked since 1982
Census
Cagney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 365 people with the first name Cagney, which placed it at #25,801 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,801
National first-name rank
People counted
365
365 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cagney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cagney is White at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.5%) and Hispanic (6.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cagney described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cagney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.0% · 252
- Black or African American19.5% · 71
- Hispanic or Latino6.3% · 23
- Two or more races3.8% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Cagney
Cagney is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 291 total registrations, 105 (36.1%) were male and 186 (63.9%) were female.
Cagney as a male name
- Ranked #12,567 in 2011
- 5 male births in 2011
- Peak: 1984 (31 births)
Cagney as a female name
- Ranked #17,795 in 2009
- 5 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1986 (37 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cagney on both sides of the split. Of the 371 people counted with this name, 134 were male (36.1%) and 237 were female (63.9%).
Popularity
Cagney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cagney from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 221 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cagney by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cagney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cagneys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Cagney
The given name Cagney is an English surname that has been adopted as a first name. Its origins can be traced back to the Gaelic Irish language, where it is derived from the surname O'Cainígh or O'Catháin, meaning "descendant of Catháin." Catháin itself is a personal name derived from the word "cath," meaning "battle" or "warrior."
The name gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to the fame of American actor and dancer James Cagney, who was born in 1899 and passed away in 1986. His memorable performances in films such as "The Public Enemy" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" helped to popularize the name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Cagney was John Cagney, an Irish-born American Catholic priest who lived from 1805 to 1890. He served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee and played a significant role in the establishment of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin.
Another notable figure with the name Cagney was William Cagney, a Canadian politician who served as the 14th Premier of Ontario from 1919 to 1923. He was born in 1842 and passed away in 1932.
In the literary world, the name Cagney is associated with James Michael Cagney, an American author and journalist who lived from 1899 to 1988. He was best known for his novels and short stories that depicted life in New York City's Irish-American communities.
The name Cagney also has a connection to the field of medicine through Dr. William R. Cagney, an American physician and medical researcher who made significant contributions to the understanding of cardiovascular diseases. He was born in 1909 and passed away in 1988.
While the name Cagney has Irish roots, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions, particularly in the United States and Canada, where it has been embraced as a first name for both males and females.
People
Cagney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cagney as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cagney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cagney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 278 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cagney going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,232,929 US residents.
Is Cagney a common name?
We classify Cagney as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 291 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cagney most popular?
The single biggest year for Cagney was 1985, when 61 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cagney is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cagney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 365 people with the name Cagney, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,801 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cagney in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cagney?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cagney on both sides of the split. Of the 371 people counted with this name, 134 were male (36.1%) and 237 were female (63.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cagney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cagney is White at 69.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.5%) and Hispanic (6.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cagney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cagney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.0% (252 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cagney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cagney a female name?
Yes, 63.9% of people registered as Cagney in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cagney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cagney in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cagney can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Cagney?
Want to know how many people have the name Cagney? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.