Cinderella
Feminine · “Little ashes”
Cinderella is a story before it is a name, and the story is far older and far more widespread than the version everybody knows. Versions of it have been collected in hundreds of languages, which makes it one of the most persistent things human beings have ever told each other.
How old is the name Cinderella?
Cinderella first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Cinderella alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 500 people named Cinderella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cinderella most popular?
Cinderella peaked in 1894, reaching #1237 nationally. See the whole 1894 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cendrillon to Cinderella
The story of Cinderella
The oldest written version of the story is Chinese, set down more than a thousand years before the French one, and it already has the mistreated girl, the helpful supernatural creature, the lost shoe and the ruler who searches for its owner. Versions have been recorded across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, most of them collected before anybody had a way of spreading a story quickly. What every version keeps is the hearth: the girl sleeps among the ashes, which in a house with one fire is the warmest place and the lowest, at once the only comfort available and the mark of her position. The name says so directly, and it is the only part of the tale that is the same everywhere.
Meaning
Little ashes — the girl of the hearth
The name is descriptive in every language that tells the tale: it is built on the word for cinders or ashes with a diminutive ending. Italian has Cenerentola, German Aschenputtel, and the English form came through French. The ashes are not decoration — they are the whole point of the name.
How the name formed
- Cendrillon
- Cinderella
Related forms: Cendrillon · Cenerentola · Aschenputtel · Cenicienta
Pronouncing Cinderella
sin-duh-REL-uh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. Nobody has ever mispronounced it.
Nicknames for Cinderella
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
- 1894
- Most girls named
- 192225 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1237reached in 1894
- Change vs 2022
- −28.6%5 in 2024, from 7
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.
Cinderella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cendrillon in French — same name
- Cenerentola in Italian — same name
- Aschenputtel in German — same name
- Cenicienta in Spanish — same name
Cinderellas among us
people named Cinderella 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
Cinderella sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Every person she meets will know the name, which is true of almost nothing else this rare.
- The meaning is transparent and the story behind it is genuinely ancient.
- It shortens to two very different names, both of which stand alone.
- The name belongs to a story so famous that she will be asked about it every time, for life.
- It is long, and American classrooms will shorten it immediately.
- The character is not the one most modern parents would pick as a model, and that conversation will come.
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Cinderella
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cinderellas 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 Cinderella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cinderella in 2025?
- Cinderella is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cinderella with classmates?
- Cinderella 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 Cinderella? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cinderella and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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