Ceylon
An English masculine name derived from the former name of Sri Lanka, of obscure etymology.
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Ceylon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ceylon today is around 97 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ceylon births was 1931 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ceylon. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Ceylon is about 97 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Ceylons were born before 1939.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Ceylon. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1931
9 babies that year
Average age
97
years old
1947 SSA rank
#3,803
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ceylon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 186 people with the first name Ceylon, which placed it at #40,168 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
#40,168
National first-name rank
People counted
186
186 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ceylon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ceylon is Black at 45.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.6%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Ceylon 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 Ceylon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.2% · 84
- White37.6% · 70
- Two or more races7.0% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Ceylon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ceylon from the 1880s through to the 1940s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 35 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
Ceylon 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 Ceylon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ceylon
The name Ceylon is derived from the Portuguese word Ceilão, which was their rendition of the Sanskrit name Sīhaladīpa, meaning "Island of Lions." This referred to the island nation now known as Sri Lanka, formerly called Ceylon. The name's origins can be traced back to the 4th century BCE, when the island was first colonized by Aryan settlers from northern India.
In ancient Hindu texts like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the island is mentioned under various names such as Lankadipa, Sinhala, and Taprobane. These names all reflect the island's connections to the mythological kingdom of Lanka, ruled by the demon king Ravana, who features prominently in the Ramayana epic.
The first known use of the specific name Ceylon dates back to the 4th century CE, when the island was referred to as Sīhaladīpa in the travelogues of the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian. The name continued to be used throughout the Middle Ages by Arab traders and European navigators like Marco Polo, who visited the island in the 13th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Ceylon was Ceylon Pedro Bandaranaike (1899-1976), a Ceylonese civil servant and politician who served as the fourth Governor-General of Ceylon from 1959 to 1962. Another notable figure was Ceylon Samuelson (1854-1944), a Swedish-American businessman and real estate developer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In literature, the name appears in the 1930 novel "Ceylon Navarro" by English author Patrick Chamoiseau, which explores themes of colonial identity and rebellion in the Caribbean. In music, Ceylon Amarasinghe (1907-1984) was a prominent Ceylonese composer and violinist who helped popularize the country's traditional music styles.
Finally, in sports, Ceylon Vibart (1886-1953) was a Ceylonese cricketer who played for the national team in the early 20th century, while Ceylon Wijesinghe (1903-1978) was a Ceylonese badminton player who won numerous national and international titles in the 1920s and 1930s.
People
Ceylon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ceylon 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
Ceylon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ceylon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ceylon 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Ceylon a common name?
We classify Ceylon as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 86 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ceylon most popular?
The single biggest year for Ceylon was 1931, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ceylon is about 97 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ceylon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 186 people with the name Ceylon, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,168 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 Ceylon 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 Ceylon?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ceylon on both sides of the split. Of the 184 people counted with this name, 92 were male (50.0%) and 92 were female (50.0%). 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 Ceylon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ceylon is Black at 45.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.6%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Ceylon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ceylon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.2% (84 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 Ceylon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ceylon a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ceylon 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 Ceylon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ceylon 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 Ceylon 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 Ceylon?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.