Cassady
A masculine name of English origin potentially meaning "curly-haired" or "shaggy."
Name Census estimates that about 1,135 living Americans carry the first name Cassady. It is a predominantly female name (92.5% of registrations). The average person named Cassady today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cassady births was 1995 (74 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cassady. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cassady with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 301,986 Americans
Peak year
1995
74 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2002 SSA rank
#8,588
Tracked since 1977
Census
Cassady in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,149 people with the first name Cassady, which placed it at #11,266 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#11,266
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,149 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cassady
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cassady is White at 81.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.3%) and Hispanic (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cassady described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cassady at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.2% · 933
- Two or more races6.3% · 72
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 70
- Black or African American4.2% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Cassady
Cassady leans heavily female at 92.5% of total registrations, but 87 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cassady as a male name
- Ranked #8,588 in 2002
- 7 male births in 2002
- Peak: 1995 (11 births)
Cassady as a female name
- Ranked #13,769 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (67 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cassady leans strongly female. 1,000 people counted with this name were female (87.4%), compared with 144 male bearers (12.6%).
Popularity
Cassady: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cassady from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 497 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cassady by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cassady during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cassadys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Ohio, California, Alabama recorded the most babies named Cassady, while Virginia, Oklahoma, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cassady
The given name Cassady is a variant spelling of the Irish name Cassidy, which is derived from the ancient Irish Gaelic name "O'Caiside". The prefix "O'" denotes "grandson of" or "descendant of", while "Caiside" likely originated from the Irish word "cáis" meaning "brave" or "defiant".
The name Cassady traces its roots back to medieval Ireland, where it was commonly found among Irish clans and families, particularly in the regions of Connacht and Ulster. Historical records suggest that the name may have been associated with warriors or chieftains who displayed acts of bravery and defiance.
One of the earliest documented references to the name Cassady can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In the annals, the name appears as "O'Caiside" in entries dating back to the 14th century, indicating its long-standing presence in Irish culture.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Cassady. One of the earliest recorded figures was Tadhg O'Caiside, an Irish chieftain who lived in the 15th century and played a role in regional conflicts during that time.
In the 16th century, Seán O'Caiside was a prominent Irish poet and scholar, known for his contributions to the preservation of Irish literature and language.
During the 19th century, Neal Cassady (1926-1968) was an American icon of the Beat Generation literary movement. His spontaneous and unconventional lifestyle influenced writers like Jack Kerouac, who immortalized him as the character Dean Moriarty in the novel "On the Road".
Another notable figure was John Joseph Cassady (1860-1944), an Irish-American prelate who served as the Bishop of Fall River, Massachusetts, from 1904 to 1944.
In the world of sports, Curt Cassady (1923-2009) was an American football player and coach, best known for his tenure as the head coach of the Detroit Lions in the National Football League (NFL) during the late 1960s.
People
Cassady + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cassady as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cassady: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cassady?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,135 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cassady going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 301,986 US residents.
Is Cassady a common name?
We classify Cassady as "Rare". It ranks above 90.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,167 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cassady most popular?
The single biggest year for Cassady was 1995, when 74 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cassady is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cassady in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,149 people with the name Cassady, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,266 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cassady in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cassady?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cassady leans strongly female. 1,000 people counted with this name were female (87.4%), compared with 144 male bearers (12.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cassady?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cassady is White at 81.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.3%) and Hispanic (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cassady most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cassady in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.2% (933 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cassady in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cassady a female name?
Yes, 92.5% of people registered as Cassady in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cassady still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cassady in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cassady can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Cassady?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.