Caesar
Masculine
Caesar is a Roman family name whose meaning the Romans themselves could not agree on, and it is also a name that carries a hard chapter of American history. Both of those things need saying together.
How old is the name Caesar?
Caesar was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Caesar alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 3,900 people named Caesar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Caesar most popular?
Caesar peaked in 1904, reaching #587 nationally. Today it ranks #2833, 2,246 places below that high. See the whole 1904 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Caesar
Caesar was a cognomen — the third part of a Roman name, marking one branch of a family — and one man made it a title. After him it meant emperor, and it passed into German as Kaiser and Russian as Tsar. In the United States it has a second history that is inseparable from the record: classical names, Caesar and Pompey and Scipio among them, were routinely assigned to enslaved men, and they appear heavily in nineteenth-century registers for that reason. The name reaches modern American use both through that history and, separately and more commonly now, through Spanish-speaking families as César.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Ancient writers offered four explanations and did not settle on one: from caedere, 'to cut', through a birth by cutting; from caesaries, 'a head of hair', which is odd given the family's baldness jokes; from caesius, 'grey-eyed'; and from a Punic word for an elephant, said to have been earned by an ancestor. Modern scholarship treats all four as guesses and the name as probably Etruscan and beyond recovery.
Pronouncing Caesar
SEE-zer
Two syllables, stress on the first. Classical Latin said it KY-sar, with a hard c and a diphthong — which is where the German Kaiser comes from. Spanish says SEH-sar with the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Caesar
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 201483 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #587reached in 1904
- Change vs 2022
- −4.3%44 in 2025, from 46
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.
Caesar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- César in Spanish — same name
- Cesare in Italian — same name
- Kaiser in German — related form
- Tsar in Russian — related form
- César in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Caesars among us
people named Caesar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 38,820 born in 2025 was named Caesar
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Caesar 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
Where Caesar is headed
Caesar should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Caesar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Caesar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the most recognizable names in the world, in every European language.
- César stands beside it as the ordinary Spanish form, which is very widely used.
- Two syllables and no pronunciation difficulty in English.
- Its use as a name imposed on enslaved men is part of the American record and will be found by anyone who looks.
- It became a word for emperor, so the name carries a claim to power whether or not one is intended.
- Its meaning is genuinely unknown, and the four ancient explanations are all guesses.
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Caesar
Masculine · #2833 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Caesars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,900 people named Caesar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Caesar in 2025?
- Caesar ranks #2833 among US boy names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Caesar?
- About 1 in every 38,820 US boys born in 2025 was named Caesar — 44 in all.
- Will my child share the name Caesar with classmates?
- Caesar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Caesar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bayron#2833 · Odysseus#2833 · Mahlon#2833 · Ward#2833 · Jarvis#2833 · Abriel#2833 · Alain#2833 · Josef#2833
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Caesar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Caesar and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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