Cecil
A masculine name derived from the Latin name Caecilius, meaning "blind".
Name Census estimates that about 39,309 living Americans carry the first name Cecil. It is a predominantly male name (93.3% of registrations). The average person named Cecil today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cecil births was 1920 (2,672 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cecil. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cecil with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Cecil have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
39K
~ 1 in 8,719 Americans
Peak year
1920
2,672 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,479
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cecil in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 37,488 people with the first name Cecil, which placed it at #1,101 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
#1,101
National first-name rank
People counted
37K
37,488 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cecil
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecil is White at 68.7%. The next largest groups are Black (21.3%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Cecil 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 Cecil at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.7% · 25,740
- Black or African American21.3% · 7,989
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 1,357
- Two or more races3.2% · 1,182
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 660
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 560
Gender
Gender distribution for Cecil
Cecil leans heavily male at 93.3% of total registrations, but 7,687 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cecil as a male name
- Ranked #1,479 in 2024
- 122 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (2,459 births)
Cecil as a female name
- Ranked #15,771 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1916 (241 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cecil leans strongly male. 36,124 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 1,363 female bearers (3.6%).
Popularity
Cecil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cecil from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 24,003 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cecil 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 Cecil during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cecils live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Cecil, while Hawaii, Alaska, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,034 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cecil
The name Cecil has its origins in the Latin name Caecilius, which is derived from the Latin word "caecus," meaning "blind." The name entered the English language through the Norman French form "Cécile."
In ancient Rome, Caecilius was a common Roman family name, and it was borne by several notable historical figures, including the Roman statesman and philosopher Caecilius Statius, who lived in the 2nd century BC.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Cecil can be found in the 12th century, when it was used by the English nobleman Cecil of Sceaun. In the Middle Ages, the name became popular among the Norman aristocracy in England.
In the 16th century, the name gained prominence with Sir William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1520-1598), who served as Lord High Treasurer and principal advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. His son, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612), also played a crucial role in the English government as Secretary of State.
Another notable bearer of the name was Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605-1675), the founder of the Maryland colony in British North America. He established the settlement of St. Mary's City in 1634, which became the first capital of the colony.
In literature, the name appears in works such as William Shakespeare's play "Richard III," where the character Lord Grey mentions "Cecil, Underhill, and the good Sir Robert Brackenbury."
Other notable figures named Cecil include Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), the British businessman and politician who founded the territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), and Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959), the renowned American filmmaker known for epic productions such as "The Ten Commandments" and "The Greatest Show on Earth."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Cecil
People
Cecil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cecil 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
Cecil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cecil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39,309 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cecil 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 8,719 US residents.
Is Cecil a common name?
We classify Cecil as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 114,554 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cecil most popular?
The single biggest year for Cecil was 1920, when 2,672 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cecil is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cecil in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 37,488 people with the name Cecil, or 12.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,101 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 Cecil 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 Cecil?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cecil leans strongly male. 36,124 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 1,363 female bearers (3.6%). 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 Cecil?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecil is White at 68.7%. The next largest groups are Black (21.3%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Cecil most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cecil in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.7% (25,740 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 Cecil in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cecil a male name?
Yes, 93.3% of people registered as Cecil in the SSA data are male. 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 Cecil still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cecil 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 Cecil 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 have the name Cecil?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.