Cady
Feminine · “English Cade”
Cady is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,434 girls against 20 boys since 1880.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton refused to be called Mrs Henry Stanton. She kept Cady, her birth surname, as her middle name and used it all her life, and she argued in print that a woman losing her name at marriage was losing her legal identity, which at the time she was.
How old is the name Cady?
Cady first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Cady alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 2,400 people named Cady are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cady most popular?
Cady peaked in 1992, reaching #1138 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 8,319 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cade to Cady
The story of Cady
Under coverture, the legal doctrine in force in nineteenth-century America and Britain, a married woman's legal personality was absorbed into her husband's: she could not own property, sign contracts or sue in her own name. Elizabeth Cady Stanton attacked the doctrine directly and treated naming as part of it, writing that the custom of calling women Mrs John This and Mrs Tom That was a badge of the same subjection. She signed herself Elizabeth Cady Stanton, insisted on the middle name, and objected to correspondence addressed otherwise. Lucy Stone went further and kept her own surname entirely after marrying in 1855, which is why American women who did the same were called Lucy Stoners for the next century. Both positions were arguments about property law conducted through names.
Meaningscholars disagree
English Cade, of uncertain meaning
Cady is an English surname of uncertain origin, generally derived from the medieval given name or nickname Cade, whose own meaning is disputed; proposals include a word for a cask and one for something round or lumpy. It also serves as a respelling of Katie. The American peak of the given name is 1992.
How the name formed
- Cade
- Cady
Related forms: Cadie · Kady
Pronouncing Cady
KAY-dee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Cady, Kady and Katie are homophones in American speech, though Katie comes from a completely different name.
Nicknames for Cady
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 1991154 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1138reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- −28.6%10 in 2025, from 14
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cady in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cadie in English — spelling variant
- Kady in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Cadys among us
people named Cady are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Cady
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cady
- #9457
- Cady on the 2025 chart
- #928
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cady went to 10 girls in 2025, but Kady and Khady are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 32, which makes it the 928th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,529 places above the chart.
- Kady11
- Khady11
- Cady10
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 160,727 for Cady itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lawrence test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cady's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lawrence climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lawrence's path sketches the road Cady is walking now.
Cady 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.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Cady beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cady in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and four letters, easy to say and spell.
- It is a genuine surname with a documented American history.
- Cade works as a short form and is a name in its own right.
- Katie is a homophone from an unrelated name.
- The surname's own meaning is not settled.
- Kady and Cadie compete as spellings.
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What they receive
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Cady
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cadys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Cady are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cady?
- Cady is one of 3 recorded spellings. Kady is the more common one — 11 births in 2025 against 10 for Cady.
- How popular is the name Cady in 2025?
- Cady ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cady?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Cady — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cady with classmates?
- Cady will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cady
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cady? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cady and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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