Cecilio
Masculine · “Latin Caecilius”
In Spain and Latin America a child was often named for the saint whose feast fell on the day of their birth, and the calendar has a saint for every day of the year. That is how names arrive that nobody would have chosen otherwise. Cecilio is the masculine of Cecilia, whose feast is 22 November, and the practice put the name on boys born in late autumn.
How old is the name Cecilio?
Cecilio first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Cecilio alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 1,800 people named Cecilio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cecilio most popular?
Cecilio peaked in 1945, reaching #1349 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,894 places below that high. See the whole 1945 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Caecilius to Cecilio
The story of Cecilio
The santoral, the calendar of saints' days, functioned as a naming system with no choice in it. A child born on 22 November was Cecilia or Cecilio; born on 24 June, Juan or Juana; on 19 March, Jose or Josefa. The practice produced an even spread of names across the population rather than the concentrations that free choice creates, and it explains why nineteenth-century Spanish and Latin American records contain names that were never fashionable and never rare. It also explains the double names: a child could be given the day's saint and a family name together. The custom weakened through the twentieth century and had largely gone by the 1970s, replaced by choice, which is why modern Spanish naming looks much more like American naming than it did. Cecilio peaks in the United States in 1945.
Meaning
Latin Caecilius, from caecus, blind
The Spanish masculine of the Roman family name Caecilius, from caecus, blind. Latin marked gender by ending, and Spanish inherited the system intact: Cecilio and Cecilia, Antonio and Antonia, Mario and Maria are regular pairs. English lost that machinery and has to borrow or invent a feminine, which is why English has Cecil and Cecilia rather than a matched pair.
How the name formed
- Caecilius
- Cecilio
Related forms: Cecilio · Cecilio · Cecil
Pronouncing Cecilio
seh-SEE-lyo
Three syllables in Spanish, stress on the second, with the final -io as a single glide. Spain says theh-THEE-lyo, distinguishing c before e from s, which Latin American Spanish does not. English speakers say suh-SEE-lee-oh with four syllables.
Nicknames for Cecilio
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 198137 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1349reached in 1945
- Change vs 2023
- −52.6%9 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.
Cecilio in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cecilio in Italian — same name
- Cecilio in Portuguese — same name
- Cecil in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Cecilios among us
people named Cecilio are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Cecilio
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 Cosimo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cecilio's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cosimo climbed just as high around 1927, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cosimo's path sketches the road Cecilio is walking now.
Cecilio 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
Cecilio beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cecilio in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is documented back to a Roman family name.
- It pairs regularly with Cecilia, which English cannot manage.
- It has a long and continuous history in Spanish.
- English speakers add a syllable to the ending.
- The name reads as traditional and mid-century in Spanish-speaking families.
- Cecil, the English relative, has a very different register.
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What they receive
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Cecilio
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cecilios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Cecilio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cecilio in 2025?
- Cecilio ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cecilio?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Cecilio — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cecilio with classmates?
- Cecilio will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cecilio
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cecilio? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cecilio and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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