Cid
Lord or master, derived from the Arabic "sayyid".
Name Census estimates that about 197 living Americans carry the first name Cid. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cid today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cid births was 1971 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cid. 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
197
~ 1 in 1,739,870 Americans
Peak year
1971
10 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2020 SSA rank
#12,395
Tracked since 1962
Census
Cid in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 421 people with the first name Cid, which placed it at #23,301 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
#23,301
National first-name rank
People counted
421
421 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
42.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cid
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cid is Hispanic at 42.5%. The next largest groups are White (38.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.6%). 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 Cid 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 Cid at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino42.5% · 179
- White38.2% · 161
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.6% · 49
- Black or African American3.8% · 16
- Two or more races2.9% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 4
Popularity
Cid: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cid from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 53 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cid 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 Cid 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 Cid
The name Cid is a Spanish given name derived from the Arabic term "al-sīd" meaning "the lord" or "the master." Its origins trace back to the 11th century during the Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula. The name gained prominence through the legendary figure of El Cid, a Castilian nobleman and military leader whose birth name was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043-1099).
El Cid was a famous Castilian hero who fought against the Moors and played a crucial role in the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic rule. His exploits were immortalized in the epic poem "El Cantar de Mio Cid," which dates back to the 12th century and is considered one of the masterpieces of Spanish literature.
The name Cid has been widely used in Spanish-speaking cultures, particularly in Spain and Latin America, often as a reference to the legendary figure of El Cid. It has been borne by several notable individuals throughout history, including Cid Campeador (c. 1040-1099), the full name of the famous Spanish military leader Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar; Cid Hispalensis (c. 1437-1512), a Spanish philosopher and theologian; Cid Corneille (1592-1694), a French dramatist and tragedian; and Cid Rimando (born 1980), an American soccer goalkeeper.
Other famous bearers of the name Cid include Cid Moreira (born 1938), a Brazilian journalist and television presenter; Cid Garcés (born 1962), a Chilean football player; and Cid Torquato (born 1980), a Brazilian mixed martial artist. The name has also been used in literature and popular culture, such as in the character of Cid Campeador in the opera "Le Cid" by Jules Massenet, and in the novel "El Cid" by José Zorrilla.
People
Cid + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cid 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
Cid: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cid?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 197 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cid 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 1,739,870 US residents.
Is Cid a common name?
We classify Cid as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 206 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cid most popular?
The single biggest year for Cid was 1971, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cid 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 Cid in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 421 people with the name Cid, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,301 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 Cid 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 Cid?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cid leans strongly male. 346 people counted with this name were male (80.8%), compared with 82 female bearers (19.2%). 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 Cid?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cid is Hispanic at 42.5%. The next largest groups are White (38.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.6%). 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 Cid most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Cid in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.5% (179 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 Cid in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cid a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cid 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 Cid still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cid 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 Cid 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 common is the name Cid?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.