Cedar
Feminine · “the cedar tree”
Cedar is given to both — 1,462 girls and 2,629 boys since 1880. See Cedar as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Cedar is a tree with an unusually long record in writing. The cedars of Lebanon are named in the oldest surviving epic, cut for temples and palaces across the ancient Near East, and there are not many of them left standing on those mountains now.
How old is the name Cedar?
Cedar first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Cedar is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,400 people named Cedar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cedar most popular?
Cedar peaked in 2022, reaching #2253 nationally. Today it ranks #2822, 569 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Where it comes from
From kedros to Cedar
The story of Cedar
Cedar wood was valuable because it is fragrant, resists rot and grows straight and long — which made it the timber of choice for temples, ships and coffins across the ancient Mediterranean. It appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in the building of Solomon's temple, and in Egyptian burial practice. The tree is on the flag of Lebanon. As a given name Cedar is recent and North American, belonging to the group taken from trees and landscape — Willow, Juniper, Sage, Aspen, Wren — and it is given to daughters and sons alike.
Meaning
the cedar tree
From Latin cedrus, from Greek kedros, a word of uncertain earlier origin that named several resinous trees before it settled on this one. The Hebrew erez, translated cedar throughout the Bible, refers to the cedar of Lebanon specifically. The reading is exact; what a modern American means by cedar is usually a different tree entirely, since several unrelated species have been given the name.
How the name formed
- kedros
- cedrus
- cedar
Related forms: Cèdre · Cedro
Pronouncing Cedar
SEE-der
Two syllables, stress on the first, the c soft. There is no ambiguity in it; every English speaker knows the word.
Nicknames for Cedar
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 202283 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2253reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −21.1%60 in 2025, from 76
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.
Cedar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cèdre in French — related form
- Cedro in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Utah, Washington, Minnesota.
Cedars among us
people named Cedar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 26,788 born in 2025 was named Cedar
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 Jaynie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cedar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jaynie climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jaynie's path sketches the road Cedar is walking now.
Cedar 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
Where Cedar is headed
Cedar should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Cedar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cedar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Said and spelled correctly by every English speaker without being told.
- A tree with a genuinely long documented history rather than a decorative nature-word.
- Used for both sexes, so it carries no strong expectation either way.
- It is a common noun and will be read as a place-name or a street first by some people.
- Nature names date visibly to the period that made them fashionable.
- It is close to Cedric and to Ceda in speech and gets misheard.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cedar
Feminine · #2822 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cedars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Cedar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cedar in 2025?
- Cedar ranks #2822 among US girl names in 2025, with 60 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cedar?
- About 1 in every 26,788 US girls born in 2025 was named Cedar — 60 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cedar with classmates?
- Cedar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cedar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lya#2822 · Roxanna#2822 · Kensington#2822 · Maybelle#2822 · Hayat#2822 · Seven#2822 · Livie#2822 · Haniya#2822
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cedar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cedar and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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