Cindie
Feminine
Everybody knows that Cinderella's glass slipper was a mistranslation of a French word for squirrel fur. It was not. The story is a nineteenth-century guess that has been repeated ever since, and the manuscript settles it: the man who wrote the version we all know wrote glass, deliberately, and meant it.
How old is the name Cindie?
Cindie first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Cindie alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 900 people named Cindie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cindie most popular?
Cindie peaked in 1957, reaching #1096 nationally. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a folk tale printed in France at the end of the seventeenth century to Cindie
The story of Cindie
The theory goes like this: the French for glass is verre, the French for a particular squirrel fur is vair, they sound identical, and somebody must have confused them. It is a lovely idea and it has been in circulation since the 1800s. The trouble is that the earliest printed text says glass, in a book the author saw through the press himself, and that glass slippers make far better sense of the story — a shoe that cannot stretch, cannot be faked, and shatters if forced. The fur version appears nowhere before the theory that invented it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a name this is a short form and can be cut from Cynthia, Lucinda, Cinderella or Cindy given on its own, and there is no way to tell which. The mid-century American habit was to give the short form as the legal name, so a great many bearers have no longer name at all. This spelling uses the older ending, which was going out of fashion at exactly the moment the name was arriving.
How the name formed
- a folk tale printed in France at the end of the seventeenth century
- a nineteenth-century theory proposes a mistranslation
- the theory outlives every attempt to correct it
- Cindy and Cindie given as American names from the 1940s
- peaks at the end of the 1950s
Related forms: Cindy · Cyndi · Lucinda
Pronouncing Cindie
SIN-dee
Two syllables, stress at the front. The c before an i says s, which is one of the more reliable English spelling rules.
Nicknames for Cindie
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
- 1947
- Most girls named
- 195791 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1096reached in 1957
- Change vs 1991
- −16.7%5 in 1993, from 6
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.
Cindie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cindy in English — spelling variant
- Cyndi in English — spelling variant
- Lucinda in English — related form
Cindies among us
people named Cindie 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
Cindie 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
- It is warm and immediately readable, and nobody has ever mispronounced it.
- Several longer names stand behind it if a family wants one.
- The spelling is genuinely uncommon while the name is entirely familiar.
- Cindy is far commoner and will be written instead on nearly everything.
- It reads as a pet form and invites the question of what it is short for.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the last century.
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What they receive
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Cindie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cindies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Cindie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cindie in 2025?
- Cindie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cindie with classmates?
- Cindie 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 Cindie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cindie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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