Head to head · Girls' names
Athena vs Cecilia
#109 vs #108 in 2025
Cecilia is a whisker ahead (#108 vs #109 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Cecilia is climbing the charts fast, Athena is holding its place on the charts.
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, Cecilia leads 5 measures of 6; Athena leads 1.
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
- 1880s: Athena —, Cecilia #250 — Cecilia higher
- 1890s: Athena —, Cecilia #221 — Cecilia higher
- 1900s: Athena #1826, Cecilia #204 — Cecilia higher
- 1910s: Athena #1536, Cecilia #223 — Cecilia higher
- 1920s: Athena #1202, Cecilia #251 — Cecilia higher
- 1930s: Athena #1658, Cecilia #276 — Cecilia higher
- 1940s: Athena #2015, Cecilia #247 — Cecilia higher
- 1950s: Athena #1415, Cecilia #263 — Cecilia higher
- 1960s: Athena #835, Cecilia #335 — Cecilia higher
- 1970s: Athena #638, Cecilia #386 — Cecilia higher
- 1980s: Athena #643, Cecilia #342 — Cecilia higher
- 1990s: Athena #703, Cecilia #285 — Cecilia higher
- 2000s: Athena #483, Cecilia #273 — Cecilia higher
- 2010s: Athena #198, Cecilia #200 — Athena higher
- 2020s: Athena #93, Cecilia #132 — Athena higher
Cecilia stood higher in 13 of 15 decades; Athena has held the lead since the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Athena | Cecilia |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | — | #250 |
| 1890s | — | #221 |
| 1900s | #1826 | #204 |
| 1910s | #1536 | #223 |
| 1920s | #1202 | #251 |
| 1930s | #1658 | #276 |
| 1940s | #2015 | #247 |
| 1950s | #1415 | #263 |
| 1960s | #835 | #335 |
| 1970s | #638 | #386 |
| 1980s | #643 | #342 |
| 1990s | #703 | #285 |
| 2000s | #483 | #273 |
| 2010s | #198 | #200 |
| 2020s | #93 | #132 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Athena
- Canada#82
- England & Wales#96
Cecilia
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Athena
Not established
The name is older than Greek etymology can reach. It appears in Mycenaean Linear B tablets from Knossos as a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja, and scholars have never settled whether the goddess was named for the city of Athens or the city for the goddess — most now treat both as pre-Greek, from a language spoken in the region before Greek arrived. Plato's dialogue Cratylus offers an ancient guess, reading it as 'divine mind', but that is Greek speculation about an already-old word rather than a recovered origin. What is documented is the role, not the root: Athena as goddess of wisdom, craft, weaving and strategy in war.
a-ta-na (Mycenaean Greek, Linear B) → Athana (Doric Greek) → Athēnē / Athēnaia (Attic Greek) → Athena (Latin) → Athena (English)
How it traveled
Athena belonged first to Bronze Age Greece, named on clay tablets before Homer, and the Iliad and Odyssey give her the standing epithet glaukopis — bright-eyed, or owl-eyed, which is why the owl became hers. Athens took her as its patron, struck her on its coins, and built the Parthenon on the hill above the city for her.
Cecilia
from the Roman family name Caecilius, itself from Latin caecus, "blind"
Worth knowing how the chain works: Caecilius was an inherited clan name in Rome, so no one was ever describing a person when they used it. The word behind it is the plain Latin adjective, and the connection is standard in the reference literature.
Caecilius → Caecilia → Cecilia → Cecily
How it traveled
The Caecilii were one of the well-known families of the Roman Republic, and Caecilia was simply the feminine form a daughter of that house would carry. What lifted it out of Roman genealogy was Saint Cecilia, a martyr honored in Rome from late antiquity onward, whose church still stands in Trastevere; by the late Middle Ages she was the patron of music and musicians.
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
Athena
uh-THEE-nuh
Standard in English. Greek speakers say it ah-thee-NAH, with the stress on the last syllable — worth knowing if there is Greek family involved, since both are correct in their own language.
- Thena — The most-used short form in English, informal and family-level; it does not stand alone as a given name.
- Attie — Informal, spelled Attie or Atty; shares its sound with short forms of Atticus and Matilda.
- Tina — Taken from the middle of the name; a long-established given name in its own right, common among older generations.
- Athie — Informal and mostly household use; the 'th' keeps it clearly tied to the full name.
Cecilia
suh-SEEL-yuh
Also said suh-SEE-lee-uh with four full syllables; both are standard in American English. In Italian it is che-CHEE-lya, in Spanish seh-SEE-lya, so relatives abroad may say it differently without saying it wrong.
- Cece — The most widely used short form in American English; also written CeCe and given on its own to some children.
- Celia — Informal short form, but long established as an independent given name in its own right.
- Cilla — Used in English and, more commonly, in Sweden and Britain.
- Sissy — An older family nickname, still heard among earlier generations; carries a separate slang sense in American English.
- Also Lia.
Who has carried each name
Athena
No documented entry for Athena yet.
Cecilia
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (b. 1900) — Astronomer who discovered what stars are made of
Cecilia Bartoli (b. 1966) — Opera superstar mezzo-soprano
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Athena if you want…
- a name holding steadyAthena is holding its place on the charts
- a name that charts abroad tooAthena is on the national lists of Canada and England & Wales
- a newer arrivalAthena entered the US charts in 1902
Choose Cecilia if you want…
- a name on the way upup 39 places on the charts in five years
- a long American recordCecilia was already in use when US records began in 1880
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
Athena
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, and recognized on sight across Europe and the Americas thanks to the goddess — very little correcting to do.
- A documented written record stretching from Bronze Age clay tablets to today, unbroken and never reinvented.
- Charts in Canada and England and Wales as well as the US, so it travels without becoming a different name.
To consider
- The mythology comes with it. Every school unit on ancient Greece, every owl joke, every 'goddess of wisdom' remark — most children take this in stride, but it is a lifetime of the same three comments.
- English and Greek stress the name differently, uh-THEE-nuh against ah-thee-NAH, and a Greek-speaking family may also prefer the spelling Athina. Worth agreeing on early.
- It is far more common among children now than among adults, so some people will hear it as a new name and others as a very old one. Both are right.
Cecilia
Strengths
- Recognized in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish and Scandinavian forms — it crosses borders without needing to be re-explained.
- A written record stretching from Republican Rome to this year's kindergartens, with no gap long enough to make it feel like a revival.
- Several long-established short forms — Cece, Celia, Cilla — so a child has real choices without inventing anything.
To consider
- Cecelia is a genuine rival spelling, and Cecilia will be written that way by some people for life. Worth deciding early which one goes on the forms and saying it the same way every time.
- Two accepted pronunciations means she will hear both, and will have to correct people or let it go. Neither is a mistake, which makes it harder to insist on one.
- The Simon and Garfunkel song of the same name has been sung at every Cecilia for decades, and probably will be again.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
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 Athena and Cecilia in full.
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Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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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 that carry both names
Every list here names both Athena and Cecilia — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Athena or Cecilia — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Athena or Cecilia?
- Cecilia, in 2025: Cecilia ranked #108 with 2,506 babies; Athena ranked #109 with 2,477 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Athena or Cecilia?
- Cecilia. Over the last five years Athena moved down 2 places; Cecilia moved up 39 places.
- Which is the older name, Athena or Cecilia?
- Athena entered the US charts in 1902; Cecilia was already in use when US records began in 1880. On the American record, Cecilia is the older name.
- How many people are named Athena and Cecilia?
- About 51,500 people named Athena are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 84,500 people named Cecilia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Athenas or Cecilias in the classroom?
- Athena will almost certainly be the only one in school. Cecilia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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