Cynthia
Feminine · “she of Cynthus”
Cynthia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 711,453 girls against 1,959 boys since 1880. See Cynthia as a boy name
The epithet this name comes from was carried by two gods and English only kept the woman's. Artemis and Apollo were twins born on the same island, both were called after the mountain there, and both epithets existed side by side in Greek and Latin. Only one crossed into English as a name.
How old is the name Cynthia?
Cynthia was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cynthia alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 607,000 people named Cynthia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cynthia most popular?
Cynthia peaked in 1957, reaching #7 nationally. Today it ranks #1013, 1,006 places below that high. See the whole 1957 chart.
Where it comes from
From Kynthia to Cynthia
The story of Cynthia
The island the name points at was subjected to one of the strangest pieces of legislation in the ancient world. Because it was sacred to the twins, Athens ordered that nobody could be born or die on it — every grave was dug up and the remains moved to a neighboring island, and anyone who fell seriously ill or went into labor had to be ferried across the water. The purification was carried out more than once. For a considerable period the most sacred island in the Aegean was, by law, a place where no human life could begin or end.
Meaning
she of Cynthus
A title rather than a name: it identifies the goddess by where she was born rather than by any quality. Poets used it as a substitute for the goddess's proper name and eventually for the moon itself.
How the name formed
- Kynthia
- Cynthia
Related forms: Cinzia · Cintia · Cíntia
Pronouncing Cynthia
SIN-thee-uh
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The initial c is soft, as it is in every Greek word English took through Latin.
Nicknames for Cynthia
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 195739,340 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #7reached in 1957
- Change vs 2022
- −21.6%247 in 2025, from 315
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.
Cynthia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cinzia in Italian — same name
- Cintia in Spanish — same name
- Cíntia in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Cynthias among us
people named Cynthia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,507 born in 2025 was named Cynthia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cynthia
- #1013
- Cynthia on the 2025 chart
- #688
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cynthia went to 247 girls in 2025, but Cinthia, Cinthya and Synthia are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 279, which makes it the 688th most-given girls’ name of the year — 325 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 5,761 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,507 for Cynthia 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 Marie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cynthia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marie climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marie's path sketches the road Cynthia is walking now.
Cynthia 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 Cynthia is headed
Cynthia 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.
Cynthia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cynthia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries a genuinely ancient title with a specific place behind it.
- Cindy sits inside it as a short form with a completely different register.
- The spelling and the sound agree once the soft c is taken for granted.
- Its peak was very large and very concentrated, which dates the name clearly.
- The obvious clipping is a homophone of an awkward word.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Cynthia
Feminine · #1013 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cynthias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 607,000 people named Cynthia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cynthia?
- Cynthia is the most-used spelling in US records — 247 of the 279 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Cinthia, Cinthya and Synthia.
- How popular is the name Cynthia in 2025?
- Cynthia ranks #1013 among US girl names in 2025, with 247 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cynthia?
- About 1 in every 6,507 US girls born in 2025 was named Cynthia — 247 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cynthia with classmates?
- Cynthia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cynthia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Viola#1013 · Belle#1013 · Meera#1016 · Beverly#1016 · Marjorie#1016 · Yusra#1016 · Agnes#1016 · Artemis#1016
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cynthia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cynthia and another name?
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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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