Candida
Feminine · “shining white”
Candida is a Latin adjective standing on its own. It means shining white, and it gave English two words that have traveled a long way from each other: candid, meaning honest, and candidate, meaning someone running for office. Both come from the same idea about the color of a garment.
How old is the name Candida?
Candida first appears in US birth records in 1900 — 125 years ago. The typical Candida alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 2,900 people named Candida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Candida most popular?
Candida peaked in 1971, reaching #686 nationally. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From candidus to Candida
The story of Candida
In Rome, a man seeking office wore a toga rubbed with chalk to make it conspicuously white, and he was therefore called a candidatus, the whitened one. The word for the garment became the word for the person, and it is still the word for anyone standing for election in most European languages. Meanwhile the adjective itself drifted from color to character: something candidus was clean, then clear, then frank, and English took the last of those and made candid. The name sits at the point before the split, meaning simply bright, and it carried into Spanish and Italian use as an ordinary given name.
Meaning
shining white, bright
The Latin candidus is the feminine of a word for a pure, glowing white — the color of a fresh toga rather than of chalk. The moral sense of honesty grew out of the visual one and eventually replaced it.
How the name formed
- candidus
- Candida
Related forms: Candida · Candida · Candida · Candide
Pronouncing Candida
KAN-did-uh
Three syllables with the weight at the front. Spanish and Italian say it the same way and mark the stress with an accent on the first syllable.
Nicknames for Candida
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
- 1900
- Most girls named
- 1973163 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #686reached in 1971
- Change vs 2014
- −14.3%6 in 2017, from 7
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.
Candida in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Candida in Spanish — same name
- Candida in Italian — same name
- Candida in Portuguese — same name
- Candide in French — related form
Candidas among us
people named Candida are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Candida sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a standing name in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, and readable in all of them.
- The meaning is settled, bright and connects to two familiar English words.
- Three syllables and no sound that an English speaker has to be taught.
- A common yeast infection carries the name, taken from the same Latin word, and search engines put it first.
- The short form Candy has its own strong associations in American English.
- English speakers may put the stress on the second syllable, which no Romance language does.
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Candida
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Candidas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Candida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Candida in 2025?
- Candida is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Candida with classmates?
- Candida will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Candida? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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