Cece
Feminine · “blind”
Saint Cecilia became the patron of music through a mistranslation. Her acts describe organs playing at her wedding while she sang in her heart to God; a later reading turned the phrase around and made her the musician, and every music society named for her descends from that error.
How old is the name Cece?
Cece first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Cece alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 500 people named Cece are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cece most popular?
Cece peaked in 1957, reaching #2651 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 3,895 places below that high. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Caecilius to Cece
The story of Cece
The Latin acts of Cecilia describe her wedding with the phrase cantantibus organis, while the instruments were playing, and she sang in her heart to the Lord alone; medieval readers took the first half as describing her, and by the fifteenth century she was being painted at an organ. Music guilds and academies across Europe took her as patron, and Purcell, Handel and Britten all wrote for her feast. The clipped CeCe is an American formation, built from the first syllable doubled or from a pair of initials, and it belongs to the same family as JoJo, BeBe and DeeDee. Its best year in United States records is 1957.
Meaningscholars disagree
blind
Cecilia descends from the Roman gens name Caecilius, generally connected to Latin caecus, blind, as a family byname. The derivation is traditional rather than proven. CeCe is a modern short form built from the initial syllable, or from initials, and it inherits whatever Cecilia carries. It also shortens Cecelia, Celeste and Cynthia in practice.
How the name formed
- Caecilius
- Caecilia
- Cecilia
- CeCe
Related forms: Ceecee · Cecilia · Cecilia
Pronouncing Cece
SEE-see
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The doubling is exact: the same syllable twice, which is what distinguishes this class of names.
Nicknames for Cece
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
- 1947
- Most girls named
- 202122 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2651reached in 1957
- Change vs 2024
- −10.5%17 in 2025, from 19
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.
Cece in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ceecee in English — spelling variant
- Cecilia in Italian — related form
- Cecilia in Spanish — related form
Ceces among us
people named Cece are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Cece
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Esperansa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cece's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Esperansa climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Esperansa's path sketches the road Cece is walking now.
Cece 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
Cece beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cece in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Warm, short and immediately understood by everyone.
- A Roman saint and the patron of music available behind it.
- Four letters and impossible to mispronounce.
- It reads as a nickname rather than a full name, and always will.
- Ceecee, CiCi and Sissy all circulate as spellings of the sound.
- The Latin gens name it descends from probably means blind.
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What they receive
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Cece
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ceces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Cece are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cece in 2025?
- Cece ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cece?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Cece — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cece with classmates?
- Cece will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cece
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cece? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cece and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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