Cage
Masculine · “English word name: an enclosure”
Cage entered American given-name data through a stage name, and the stage name was itself invented. Nicolas Coppola chose Cage in 1983 to avoid trading on his family, and the surname he picked was not a family surname at all. Its use as a first name peaks in 2012.
How old is the name Cage?
Cage first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Cage alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 1,000 people named Cage are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cage most popular?
Cage peaked in 2012, reaching #2185 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 5,009 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From cavea to Cage
The story of Cage
The name is best documented as a borrowing from performers rather than from any family line. The actor now known as Nicolas Cage has said the name came from the comic-book character Luke Cage and from the composer John Cage, and he adopted it at the start of his career. John Cage's own surname is a genuine English one. American given-name figures for Cage are thin before the 2000s and peak in 2012, alongside a broader movement of one-syllable surname and word names for boys — Chase, Gage, Blaze, Sage — which is the family the sound actually belongs to.
Meaning
English word name: an enclosure
As an English word, cage comes through Old French cage from Latin cavea, a hollow place, coop or animal enclosure — the same root as cave. As a surname it is rare and is usually an occupational or topographic name for someone associated with a cage or coop. The word's literal meaning is confining, which is worth stating plainly: this is a sound-led choice, and the sound is the reason for it.
How the name formed
- cavea
- cage
Related forms: Cage
Pronouncing Cage
kayj
One syllable, said exactly like the English word. It rhymes with Gage, Sage and Paige, all of which are in use as names, so the sound is familiar even where the spelling is not.
Nicknames for Cage
Limited
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
- 1992
- Most boys named
- 201260 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2185reached in 2012
- Change vs 2024
- +22.2%11 in 2025, from 9
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.
Cage in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cage in French — same name
Cages among us
people named Cage are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Cage
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cage
- #7194
- Cage on the 2025 chart
- #897
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cage went to 11 boys in 2025, but Kage is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 897th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,297 places above the chart.
- Kage20
- Cage11
About 1 boy in 55,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 155,280 for Cage 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 Salbador test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cage's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Salbador climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Salbador's path sketches the road Cage is walking now.
Cage 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
Cage beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cage in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, four letters, and never mispronounced or misspelled.
- It sits in an established sound family with Gage, Chase and Sage.
- It is rare enough to be distinctive without being unreadable.
- The literal meaning of the word is an enclosure, and children will notice.
- It is strongly associated with one living actor.
- Word names carry whatever the word carries; there is no etymology to fall back on.
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Cage
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cages are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Cage are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cage?
- Cage is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kage is the more common one — 20 births in 2025 against 11 for Cage.
- How popular is the name Cage in 2025?
- Cage ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cage?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Cage — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cage with classmates?
- Cage will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cage
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cage? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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