Cecilia
Feminine
Cecilia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 111,511 girls against 177 boys since 1880.
Cecilia comes down from a Roman clan name, and for some fifteen centuries it has been tied to music: Saint Cecilia, a Roman martyr venerated since late antiquity, became the patron of musicians, and English poets from Chaucer to Dryden wrote her story and her feast day into verse. It is a long name that moves quickly in the mouth — four syllables that most speakers slide into three — and it has been shortened the same affectionate ways for generations.
How old is the name Cecilia?
Cecilia was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cecilia alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 84,500 people named Cecilia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cecilia most popular?
Cecilia peaked in 2025, reaching #108 nationally. Today it ranks #108, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Caecilius to Cecilia
The story of Cecilia
The Caecilii were one of the well-known families of the Roman Republic, and Caecilia was simply the feminine form a daughter of that house would carry. What lifted it out of Roman genealogy was Saint Cecilia, a martyr honored in Rome from late antiquity onward, whose church still stands in Trastevere; by the late Middle Ages she was the patron of music and musicians. Chaucer retold her life in the Second Nun's Tale, and Dryden wrote a Song for St Cecilia's Day in the seventeenth century, later set to music more than once. The name traveled with her cult into Italian, Spanish, French, Polish and Scandinavian use, and reached English both as Cecilia and in the older, homelier Cecily.
Meaning
from the Roman family name Caecilius, itself from Latin caecus, "blind"
Worth knowing how the chain works: Caecilius was an inherited clan name in Rome, so no one was ever describing a person when they used it. The word behind it is the plain Latin adjective, and the connection is standard in the reference literature.
Cultural footprint
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (b. 1900) — Astronomer who discovered what stars are made of
Cecilia Bartoli (b. 1966) — Opera superstar mezzo-soprano
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Caecilius
- Caecilia
- Cecilia
- Cecily
Related forms: Cecilia · Cécile · Cecily · Cecylia · Cecilie · Sissel
Pronouncing Cecilia
suh-SEEL-yuh
Also said suh-SEE-lee-uh with four full syllables; both are standard in American English. In Italian it is che-CHEE-lya, in Spanish seh-SEE-lya, so relatives abroad may say it differently without saying it wrong.
Nicknames for Cecilia
High
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
- 20252,506 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #108reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +24.9%2,506 in 2025, from 2,006
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.
Cecilia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cecilia in Italian — same name
- Cécile in French — related form
- Cecily in English — related form
- Cecylia in Polish — same name
- Cecilie in Danish — same name
- Sissel in Norwegian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Cecilias among us
people named Cecilia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 641 born in 2025 was named Cecilia
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 Jenny test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cecilia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenny climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenny's path sketches the road Cecilia is walking now.
Cecilia is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cecilia is headed
Cecilia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Cecilia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cecilia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish and Scandinavian forms — it crosses borders without needing to be re-explained.
- A written record stretching from Republican Rome to this year's kindergartens, with no gap long enough to make it feel like a revival.
- Several long-established short forms — Cece, Celia, Cilla — so a child has real choices without inventing anything.
- Everyone knows how to spell it after hearing it once, even if they hesitate between Cecilia and Cecelia.
- A documented tie to music through Saint Cecilia, patron of musicians since the Middle Ages.
- Cecelia is a genuine rival spelling, and Cecilia will be written that way by some people for life. Worth deciding early which one goes on the forms and saying it the same way every time.
- Two accepted pronunciations means she will hear both, and will have to correct people or let it go. Neither is a mistake, which makes it harder to insist on one.
- The Simon and Garfunkel song of the same name has been sung at every Cecilia for decades, and probably will be again.
- The name has been climbing rather than sitting still, so it may feel somewhat more familiar by the time she is in high school than it does now.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cecilia to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cecilia
Feminine · #108 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cecilias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 84,500 people named Cecilia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cecilia in 2025?
- Cecilia ranks #108 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,506 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cecilia?
- About 1 in every 641 US girls born in 2025 was named Cecilia — 2,506 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cecilia with classmates?
- Cecilia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cecilia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Athena#109 · Anna#107 · Juliette#110 · Parker#106 · Gabriella#105 · Catalina#111 · Margaret#112 · Hailey#104
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cecilia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cecilia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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