Cindy
Diminutive of Cynthia, derived from Greek mythology meaning "from Mount Cynthus".
Name Census estimates that about 209,904 living Americans carry the first name Cindy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cindy today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cindy births was 1957 (20,307 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cindy. 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 Cindy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cindy is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 771 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Cindy have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
210K
~ 1 in 1,633 Americans
Peak year
1957
20,307 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2001 SSA rank
#1,661
Tracked since 1886
Census
Cindy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 240,220 people with the first name Cindy, which placed it at #235 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
#235
National first-name rank
People counted
240K
240,220 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
79.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cindy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cindy is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.4%). 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 Cindy 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 Cindy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.0% · 170,488
- Hispanic or Latino16.1% · 38,751
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.4% · 17,846
- Black or African American2.7% · 6,556
- Two or more races2.2% · 5,209
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1,370
Gender
Gender distribution for Cindy
Out of the 257,965 babies given the name Cindy since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Cindy as a male name
- Ranked #10,863 in 2001
- 5 male births in 2001
- Peak: 1957 (35 births)
Cindy as a female name
- Ranked #1,661 in 2024
- 123 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (20,272 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cindy appears almost entirely female. Of the 240,226 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Cindy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cindy from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 91,807 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cindy 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 Cindy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cindys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cindy, while Delaware, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,991 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cindy
The name Cindy is a diminutive form of the feminine name Cynthia, which has its origins in Greek mythology. Cynthia was an epithet of the Greek goddess Artemis, who was associated with the moon and was born on Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos.
The name Cynthia is derived from the Greek word "Kynthos," which was an alternative name for the island of Delos. It is believed that the name was first used as a poetic reference to the moon goddess Artemis in ancient Greek literature.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Cynthia can be found in the works of the Roman poet Propertius, who lived in the 1st century BC. He wrote a collection of elegies dedicated to his lover, whom he referred to as Cynthia.
The diminutive form Cindy emerged as a shortened version of Cynthia in the 20th century, particularly in the United States. It gained popularity in the 1940s and 1950s, becoming a common name for girls born during that time.
Notable historical figures with the name Cindy include Cindy Williams (born 1947), an American actress best known for her role as Shirley Feeney in the television series "Laverne & Shirley." Cindy Margolis (born 1975) is an American model and actress who was once dubbed the "Queen of the Internet."
In literature, Cindy is the name of the central character in the classic fairy tale "Cinderella." Although the name Cinderella is derived from different roots, the shortened form Cindy has become associated with this beloved fictional character.
Other notable historical figures with the name Cindy include Cindy Sherman (born 1954), an American artist known for her conceptual portraits, and Cindy Crawford (born 1966), an American model and actress who was one of the most popular supermodels of the 1990s.
Overall, the name Cindy has its roots in Greek mythology and gained popularity as a diminutive form of Cynthia in the 20th century, particularly in the United States. It has been borne by various notable figures throughout history, spanning various fields such as acting, modeling, and literature.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Cindy
People
Cindy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cindy 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
Cindy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cindy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 209,904 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cindy 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 1,633 US residents.
Is Cindy a common name?
We classify Cindy as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 257,965 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cindy most popular?
The single biggest year for Cindy was 1957, when 20,307 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cindy is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cindy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 240,220 people with the name Cindy, or 79.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #235 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 Cindy 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 Cindy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cindy appears almost entirely female. Of the 240,226 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Cindy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cindy is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.4%). 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 Cindy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cindy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (170,488 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 Cindy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cindy a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Cindy 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 Cindy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cindy 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 Cindy 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 Cindy?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Cindy, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.