Cinthia
A feminine name of French origin meaning "woman from the moon".
Name Census estimates that about 5,676 living Americans carry the first name Cinthia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cinthia today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cinthia births was 1996 (205 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cinthia. 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
5.7K
~ 1 in 60,387 Americans
Peak year
1996
205 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
1989 SSA rank
#6,195
Tracked since 1946
Census
Cinthia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,418 people with the first name Cinthia, which placed it at #2,271 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
#2,271
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,418 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
79.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cinthia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cinthia is Hispanic at 79.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.6%) and Black (2.0%). 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 Cinthia 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 Cinthia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino79.4% · 9,070
- White16.6% · 1,899
- Black or African American2.0% · 231
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 113
- Two or more races0.6% · 72
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Cinthia
Out of the 6,130 babies given the name Cinthia since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Cinthia as a male name
- Ranked #7,112 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (6 births)
Cinthia as a female name
- Ranked #6,195 in 2024
- 19 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (205 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cinthia appears almost entirely female. Of the 11,412 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Cinthia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cinthia from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,682 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cinthia 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 Cinthia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cinthias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cinthia, while Virginia, Utah, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 155 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cinthia
The name Cinthia originated from the ancient Greek language and is derived from the word "Kynthios," which was an epithet for the goddess Artemis, associated with the island of Delos and Mount Kynthos. This connection to Greek mythology and deities suggests the name's roots can be traced back to ancient Greece, around the 8th to 5th century BC.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cinthia can be found in the works of the Roman poet Propertius, who lived from around 50 BC to 15 BC. In his elegies, he referred to his beloved as Cynthia, likely a pseudonym inspired by the epithet of Artemis, the goddess of the moon.
During the Renaissance period, the name Cinthia gained popularity among poets and writers who drew inspiration from classical literature and mythology. One notable example is the Italian poet Battista Guarini, who wrote the pastoral tragicomedy "Il Pastor Fido" in 1590, featuring a character named Cinthia.
In the 17th century, the English poet and playwright Ben Jonson used the name Cynthia in his play "Cynthia's Revels," which was first performed in 1600. The play satirized the court of Queen Elizabeth I, with Cynthia representing the Virgin Queen herself.
Another famous figure associated with the name Cinthia was the Italian astronomer and philosopher Cinthia Hevelius, born in 1647. She assisted her husband, Johannes Hevelius, in his astronomical observations and contributed to the publication of his works, including the influential "Prodromus Astronomiae" in 1690.
In the 19th century, the name Cinthia appeared in the works of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In his poem "The Evening Star," published in 1858, he personified the evening star as Cinthia, drawing from the classical association with the moon and Artemis.
People
Cinthia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cinthia 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
Cinthia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cinthia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,676 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cinthia 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 60,387 US residents.
Is Cinthia a common name?
We classify Cinthia as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,130 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cinthia most popular?
The single biggest year for Cinthia was 1996, when 205 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cinthia is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cinthia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,418 people with the name Cinthia, or 3.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,271 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 Cinthia 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 Cinthia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cinthia appears almost entirely female. Of the 11,412 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 Cinthia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cinthia is Hispanic at 79.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.6%) and Black (2.0%). 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 Cinthia most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Cinthia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.4% (9,070 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 Cinthia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cinthia a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Cinthia 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 Cinthia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cinthia 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 Cinthia 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 Cinthia?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.