Cecil
Feminine · “blind”
Cecil is given to both — 7,687 girls and 106,989 boys since 1880. See Cecil as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Cecil was given to daughters as well as sons in nineteenth-century America — one of a set of surname-names that had not yet been sorted by sex. Underneath it is a Roman family name meaning blind.
How old is the name Cecil?
Cecil was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cecil alive today was born around 1918, making them about 107 years old. About 1,200 people named Cecil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cecil most popular?
Cecil peaked in 1897, reaching #239 nationally. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From caecus to Cecil
The story of Cecil
The Cecil family were among the most powerful in Elizabethan and Jacobean England — William Cecil ran the government for forty years — and their surname became a given name in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, chiefly for boys. American registers of the period carry it for daughters too, in the same way they carry Marion, Beverly and Vivian, before those names sorted themselves. Feminine Cecil peaked around 1910.
Meaning
blind
From the Roman family name Caecilius, from the Latin caecus, 'blind'. Roman family names were routinely built from a physical description of a founding ancestor. The martyr Cecilia carried the feminine into Christian naming, and she became the patron of music.
How the name formed
- caecus
- Caecilius
- Cecil
Related forms: Cécile · Cecilia · Seisyll
Pronouncing Cecil
SEE-sul
Two syllables, stress on the first, in American use. British speakers often say SESS-ul with a short first vowel; both are established.
Nicknames for Cecil
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 girls named
- 1916241 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #239reached in 1897
- Change vs 2004
- 0.0%5 in 2022, from 5
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.
Cecil in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cécile in French — related form
- Cecilia in Italian — related form
- Seisyll in Welsh — related form
Cecils among us
people named Cecil 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
Cecil has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A documented Roman family name with a saint and a great English dynasty behind it.
- Cecilia is available as an unambiguously feminine formal form.
- It carries a real and now largely forgotten piece of American naming history.
- In modern English the name reads as unambiguously masculine.
- The literal meaning is 'blind', which some families will want to weigh.
- Two pronunciations of the first vowel are established.
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What they receive
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Cecil
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cecils are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Cecil are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cecil in 2025?
- Cecil is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cecil with classmates?
- Cecil 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 Cecil? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cecil and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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