Cy
A short form of the name Cyrus, meaning sun or supreme.
Name Census estimates that about 3,483 living Americans carry the first name Cy. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Cy today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cy births was 2010 (117 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cy. 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 Cy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 98,408 Americans
Peak year
2010
117 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,339
Tracked since 1902
Census
Cy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,411 people with the first name Cy, which placed it at #5,132 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
#5,132
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,411 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cy is White at 68.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) 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 Cy 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 Cy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.5% · 2,335
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 326
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.4% · 251
- Two or more races6.7% · 228
- Black or African American6.2% · 212
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 59
Gender
Gender distribution for Cy
Out of the 3,869 babies given the name Cy since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Cy as a male name
- Ranked #2,339 in 2024
- 60 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (117 births)
Cy as a female name
- Ranked #12,417 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2023 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cy leans strongly male. 3,233 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 170 female bearers (5.0%).
Popularity
Cy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cy from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 897 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Cy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cy 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 Cy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cy, while Tennessee, Oregon, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 47 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cy
The name Cy is a shortened form of the name Cyrus, which has its origins in the Persian language and culture. The name Cyrus is derived from the ancient Persian word "kūrush," which means "throne" or "sun." This name was borne by several Persian kings, the most famous being Cyrus the Great, who ruled the Persian Empire from 559 to 530 BC.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cyrus can be found in the biblical book of Ezra, where Cyrus the Great is mentioned as the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple after their Babylonian captivity. This event is also recorded in the Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay cylinder that is considered one of the earliest known declarations of human rights.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Cy or its longer form, Cyrus. One of the earliest examples is Cyrus the Younger, a Persian prince who lived in the 5th century BC and attempted to overthrow his brother Artaxerxes II for the Persian throne. Another famous bearer of the name was Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, who ruled from 559 to 530 BC and is renowned for his military conquests and his policies of religious tolerance.
In more recent times, the name Cy has been used as a shortened form of Cyrus. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Cy Young (1867-1955), an American baseball player who is considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time. The Cy Young Award, given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, is named after him.
Another notable figure with the name Cy was Cy Twombly (1928-2011), an American painter and sculptor who was a leading figure in the abstract expressionist movement. Cy DeCosse (1936-1975) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played for several teams in the National Hockey League during the 1960s.
Additionally, Cy Endfield (1914-1995) was a American screenwriter and film director known for his socially conscious films such as "Try and Get Me!" and "Zulu." Cy Caldwell (1833-1923) was an American poet and journalist who wrote several books of poetry and was a popular figure in the literary circles of her time.
People
Cy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cy 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
Cy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,483 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cy 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 98,408 US residents.
Is Cy a common name?
We classify Cy as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,869 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cy most popular?
The single biggest year for Cy was 2010, when 117 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cy is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,411 people with the name Cy, or 1.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,132 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 Cy 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 Cy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cy leans strongly male. 3,233 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 170 female bearers (5.0%). 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 Cy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cy is White at 68.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) 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 Cy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.5% (2,335 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 Cy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cy a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Cy 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 Cy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cy 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 Cy 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 Cy as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.