Head to head · Girls' names
April vs Cassidy
#542 vs #541 in 2025
Cassidy is a whisker ahead (#541 vs #542 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Cassidy is stepping back from its peak, April is holding its place on the charts. On momentum, April has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, April leads 3 measures of 6; Cassidy leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: April #3768, Cassidy — — April higher
- 1920s: April #2821, Cassidy — — April higher
- 1930s: April #2118, Cassidy — — April higher
- 1940s: April #469, Cassidy — — April higher
- 1950s: April #274, Cassidy — — April higher
- 1960s: April #143, Cassidy #7471 — April higher
- 1970s: April #38, Cassidy #2250 — April higher
- 1980s: April #45, Cassidy #638 — April higher
- 1990s: April #140, Cassidy #218 — April higher
- 2000s: April #288, Cassidy #173 — Cassidy higher
- 2010s: April #423, Cassidy #291 — Cassidy higher
- 2020s: April #521, Cassidy #480 — Cassidy higher
April stood higher in 9 of 12 decades; Cassidy has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | April | Cassidy |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #3768 | — |
| 1920s | #2821 | — |
| 1930s | #2118 | — |
| 1940s | #469 | — |
| 1950s | #274 | — |
| 1960s | #143 | #7471 |
| 1970s | #38 | #2250 |
| 1980s | #45 | #638 |
| 1990s | #140 | #218 |
| 2000s | #288 | #173 |
| 2010s | #423 | #291 |
| 2020s | #521 | #480 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
April
the fourth Roman month, of unknown derivation
Roman antiquarians connected Aprilis to aperire, to open, on the reasoning that buds open then. That is a guess made by people who no longer knew, and modern scholarship treats it as folk etymology; an Etruscan borrowing has also been proposed. Nothing is settled.
Aprilis → April
How it traveled
The standard explanation of April Fools' Day is that France moved New Year from the spring to the first of January in fifteen sixty-four, and that people who went on celebrating in April were mocked as fools. It is repeated everywhere and the evidence does not support it.
Cassidy
descendant of Caiside; from Irish cas, 'curly-haired'
The surname Ó Caiside means 'descendant of Caiside', and the personal name Caiside is built on the Irish word cas, 'curly' — so the sense reaching back through it is 'curly-haired one'.
Caiside → Ó Caiside → Cassidy
How it traveled
The Cassidys were an Irish family of Fermanagh, hereditary physicians to the Maguire lords there, and their surname — Ó Caiside — traveled with Irish emigration into English-speaking countries. In America the name became a fixture of Western storytelling: the outlaw Robert LeRoy Parker took Butch Cassidy as his alias, and the late-1960s film about him and the Sundance Kid put the word in front of an enormous audience.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
April
AY-pril
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The Spanish and French forms stress the second syllable, which makes them sound like different names.
- Ape — The front of the name, said APE; used within families.
- Rilla — Built from the back of the name rather than cut from it.
Cassidy
KASS-ih-dee
Stress on the first syllable, the middle one very light. English speakers read it correctly on sight; the Irish original, Ó Caiside, sounds close to oh-KASH-ih-djeh.
- Cass — The most common short form, used for Cassidy and for Cassandra alike; also given on its own.
- Cassie — Informal and long-established; stands alone as a given name in its own right.
- Cassidy — Frequently used in full — three syllables is short enough that many bearers never shorten it at all.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose April if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesApril is 2 syllables to Cassidy's 3
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 40% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 65% for Cassidy
Choose Cassidy if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsCassidy is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itCassidy runs 3 syllables, April 2
- a name that feels very nowCassidy is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
April
Strengths
- Everybody knows the word, so nothing has to be taught.
- Two syllables with front stress is easy to say and quick.
- It carries a season without being a flower name or a virtue name.
To consider
- It is a month, so a birthday in any other month invites the question.
- Aprille, Apryl and Avril are all recorded and will be written for it.
- The month's own name has no established meaning, so there is nothing solid to report.
Cassidy
Strengths
- One standard spelling that almost everyone reads and writes correctly on the first try, backed by a surname long familiar in English.
- Ready-made short forms — Cass and Cassie — both of which already work as names on their own.
- A documented Irish family line behind it, which matters to parents who want an ancestral rather than an invented name.
To consider
- The best-known bearer of the name in American memory is an outlaw, and Butch Cassidy is still the first association for many people. It is affectionate rather than damaging, but it will come up.
- Surname-names ending in -y for girls — Cassidy among them — carry a fairly clear sense of when they were fashionable, so the name reads as belonging to a particular stretch of decades rather than as timeless.
- Because Cass and Cassie are shared with Cassandra, expect people to guess wrong about the full name, and expect Cassidy to be misheard as Cassandra now and then.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
April
40%chance April feels dated by 2040
April sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
Cassidy
65%chance Cassidy feels dated by 2040
Cassidy is coming down from a big peak (#99 in 1999). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear April and Cassidy in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between April and Cassidy?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Classics hiding in plain sight
- Generation X names (born 1965–1980)
- Month names, from January to December
- Spring names, fresh from the thaw
- all guides
Where April and Cassidy each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
April or Cassidy — the short answers
- Which is more popular, April or Cassidy?
- Cassidy, in 2025: Cassidy ranked #541 with 558 babies; April ranked #542 with 557 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, April or Cassidy?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years April moved down 25 places; Cassidy moved down 130 places.
- Which is the older name, April or Cassidy?
- April entered the US charts in 1917; Cassidy entered the US charts in 1969. On the American record, April is the older name.
- How many people are named April and Cassidy?
- About 231,000 people named April are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 60,000 people named Cassidy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Aprils or Cassidys in the classroom?
- April will almost certainly be the only one in school. Cassidy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up April, Cassidy and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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