Cecily
A feminine given name of Latin origin meaning "blind".
Name Census estimates that about 7,642 living Americans carry the first name Cecily. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cecily today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cecily births was 1989 (472 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cecily. 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 Cecily with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.6K
~ 1 in 44,851 Americans
Peak year
1989
472 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,595
Tracked since 1911
Census
Cecily in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,197 people with the first name Cecily, which placed it at #3,071 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
#3,071
National first-name rank
People counted
7.2K
7,197 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cecily
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecily is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.5%) and Black (12.5%). 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 Cecily 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 Cecily at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.2% · 4,619
- Hispanic or Latino14.5% · 1,044
- Black or African American12.5% · 902
- Two or more races5.1% · 364
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 219
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 49
Popularity
Cecily: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cecily from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,632 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Cecily remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cecily 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 Cecily during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cecilys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cecily, while South Carolina, Oklahoma, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 126 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cecily
The name Cecily has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is derived from the Greek name Kekilia, which means "blind" or "unseeing". This root name can be traced back to the 3rd century BC and the time of Ancient Greece.
The name Cecily is a feminine form of the masculine name Cecilio or Cecil, which traveled from Greek to Latin usage. As the Roman Empire expanded across Europe, the name spread and took on various spellings like Caecilia, Cecille, and eventually the English Cecily.
One of the earliest known references to this name is Saint Cecilia, a Roman martyr from the 3rd century AD. She is the patron saint of musicians and is often depicted in art playing the organ or other instruments. Her feast day on November 22nd helped popularize the name during the Middle Ages.
The first recorded instance of the spelling Cecily dates back to the 12th century in England. One notable bearer was Cecily Neville (1415-1495), an English noblewoman who was the mother of two English kings, Edward IV and Richard III.
Other famous people named Cecily throughout history include:
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (1415-1495), an English princess and nobility figure.
Cecily Lefort (c.1550-c.1600), an English courtier and one of the first English professional female poets.
Cecily Brownstone (1923-2005), an Australian poet, playwright, and author.
Cecily von Ziegesar (born 1970), an American author best known for the Gossip Girl book series.
Cecily Strong (born 1984), an American actress and comedian who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
People
Cecily + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cecily 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
Cecily: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cecily?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,642 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cecily 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 44,851 US residents.
Is Cecily a common name?
We classify Cecily as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,535 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cecily most popular?
The single biggest year for Cecily was 1989, when 472 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cecily is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cecily in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,197 people with the name Cecily, or 2.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,071 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 Cecily 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 Cecily?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cecily appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,194 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Cecily?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecily is White at 64.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.5%) and Black (12.5%). 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 Cecily most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cecily in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.2% (4,619 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 Cecily in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cecily a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cecily 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 Cecily still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cecily 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 Cecily 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 Americans are named Cecily?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Cecily at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.