Cecila
A feminine Latin name meaning "blind" or "blind one".
Name Census estimates that about 552 living Americans carry the first name Cecila. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cecila today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cecila births was 1970 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cecila. 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
552
~ 1 in 620,932 Americans
Peak year
1970
18 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,772
Tracked since 1900
Census
Cecila in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,323 people with the first name Cecila, which placed it at #10,173 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
#10,173
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
55.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cecila
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecila is Hispanic at 55.7%. The next largest groups are White (25.7%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Cecila 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 Cecila at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino55.7% · 737
- White25.7% · 340
- Black or African American11.9% · 157
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 23
- Two or more races1.5% · 20
Popularity
Cecila: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cecila from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 123 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
Cecila 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 Cecila during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cecilas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Cecila
The name Cecila derives from the Roman family name Caecilius, which is based on the Latin root word "caecus" meaning "blind." The name emerged during ancient Roman times and was initially given to the blind or those with impaired vision. Its evolution into the feminine name Cecilia occurred in the late Roman era.
Cecilia was the name of a young Christian martyr who lived in Rome during the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD. According to legend, Cecilia was born into a wealthy Roman family and vowed to remain a virgin, dedicating her life to Christianity. Despite being forced into marriage, she remained devoted to her faith and suffered martyrdom for refusing to worship pagan idols. St. Cecilia later became regarded as the patron saint of music and musicians.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cecilia appears in the 5th century AD, in the written works of Pope Gelasius I, who recounted her story and martyrdom. The name also appears in the 6th century AD in the Roman Martyrology, an official catalogue of Catholic martyrs.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Cecilia or its variations. These include:
1. Cecilia Gallerani (1473-1536), an Italian Renaissance poet and the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.
2. Cecilia Renata of Austria (1611-1644), a Polish queen consort, and the wife of Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland.
3. Cecilia Bartoli (born 1966), an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano and one of the most renowned vocalists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
4. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), a British-American astronomer who made groundbreaking discoveries about the composition of stars.
5. Cecilia Arizti Muñoz (1856-1930), a Chilean writer, educator, and advocate for women's rights and social reform.
While the name Cecilia has its roots in ancient Roman history, it has maintained enduring popularity across various cultures and eras, often associated with the patronage of music and the arts, as well as religious devotion and martyrdom.
People
Cecila + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cecila 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
Cecila: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cecila?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 552 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cecila 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 620,932 US residents.
Is Cecila a common name?
We classify Cecila as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 804 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cecila most popular?
The single biggest year for Cecila was 1970, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cecila is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cecila in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,323 people with the name Cecila, or 0.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,173 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 Cecila 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 Cecila?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cecila appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,325 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Cecila?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecila is Hispanic at 55.7%. The next largest groups are White (25.7%) and Black (11.9%). 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 Cecila most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Cecila in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.7% (737 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 Cecila in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cecila a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cecila 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 Cecila still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cecila 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 Cecila 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 Cecila as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Cecila, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.