Cyan
Feminine · “a blue-green color”
Cyan is given to both — 1,118 girls and 402 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Cyan is a color word, and a technical one: it is the C in CMYK, the blue-green ink that every four-color printing press carries. The Greek word behind it is older and darker than the modern shade — kyanos was the deep blue of lapis and of enamel. It appeared as an American girls' name in the 1990s, peaking in 1998, in the same window as Indigo, Jade and Sienna.
How old is the name Cyan?
Cyan first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Cyan alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 1,100 people named Cyan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cyan most popular?
Cyan peaked in 1998, reaching #1646 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,076 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kyanos to Cyan
The story of Cyan
Color names became usable as girls' names in English in stages. Violet, Rose and Ruby came first, in the Victorian flower-and-jewel fashion. Amber and Jade followed in the twentieth century. The late twentieth century then took a further step and began using colors that had never been names at all — Indigo, Sienna, Saffron, Scarlett and Cyan — treating the palette itself as a name list. Cyan's particular flavor comes from its technical register: unlike Indigo or Scarlett it belongs to printers and screens rather than to dye works and poetry, which gives it a modern, precise sound.
Meaning
a blue-green color; from a Greek word for dark blue
Greek kyanos named a dark blue substance — lapis lazuli, or the blue enamel used on metalwork — and Homer uses it of things that are deep blue or simply very dark. Modern English narrowed it to a specific blue-green when color science needed a precise term, and printing fixed it there. Cyanide takes its name from the same root, by a long route through Prussian blue pigment, which is a fact worth knowing before a bearer is asked about it.
How the name formed
- kyanos
- cyaneus
- cyan
- Cyan
Related forms: Kyanos · Cian · Cian
Pronouncing Cyan
SY-an
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly as the color term. A one-syllable SY-uhn is also heard and is how the unrelated Irish name Cian is said, which causes occasional confusion between the two.
Nicknames for Cyan
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
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 199898 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1646reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- +10.5%21 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.
Cyan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kyanos in Greek — related form
- Cian in Spanish — spelling variant
- Cian in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Cyans among us
people named Cyan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Cyan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cyan
- #5722
- Cyan on the 2025 chart
- #934
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cyan went to 21 girls in 2025, but Sian is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 26, which makes it the 934th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,788 places above the chart.
- Cyan21
- Sian5
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Cyan itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Yalonda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cyan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Yalonda climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Yalonda's path sketches the road Cyan is walking now.
Cyan 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
Cyan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cyan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a real English word, so nobody has to be taught to say or spell it.
- It works equally on either sex and carries no generational marker.
- The Greek history behind it is genuinely old and easy to tell.
- The Irish name Cian is spelled and said differently and will be confused with it.
- Cyanide shares the root, and the connection gets made.
- Color names date to a particular fashion window, which places a bearer.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cyan to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Cyan? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cyan
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cyans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Cyan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cyan?
- Cyan is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 26 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Sian.
- How popular is the name Cyan in 2025?
- Cyan ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cyan?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Cyan — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cyan with classmates?
- Cyan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cyan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cyan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cyan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle