Cayetana
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "little one from Gaeta".
Name Census estimates that about 137 living Americans carry the first name Cayetana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cayetana today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cayetana births was 2023 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cayetana. 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.
People living today
137
~ 1 in 2,501,856 Americans
Peak year
2023
28 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,817
Tracked since 1928
Census
Cayetana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 374 people with the first name Cayetana, which placed it at #25,370 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
#25,370
National first-name rank
People counted
374
374 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
90.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cayetana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cayetana is Hispanic at 90.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.4%) and White (2.4%). 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 Cayetana 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 Cayetana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino90.4% · 338
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 24
- White2.4% · 9
- Two or more races0.5% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Cayetana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cayetana from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 91 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cayetana 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 Cayetana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cayetanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Florida, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Cayetana, while Texas, California, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cayetana
The name Cayetana has its origins in the Spanish language and culture. It is a feminine variant of the male name Cayetano, which is derived from the Italian place name Caietani. This place name refers to the town of Gaeta, located in the province of Latina in southern Italy.
The name Cayetano is believed to have originated from the Latin word "caieta," which means "rocky or boulder-strewn." This is likely a reference to the rocky terrain surrounding the town of Gaeta. The earliest recorded use of the name Cayetano dates back to the 9th century AD.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Cayetana was Cayetana de Silva y Mendoza, the 12th Duchess of Alba, who lived from 1795 to 1868. She was a prominent Spanish aristocrat and a renowned patron of the arts. Another famous Cayetana was Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, the 18th Duchess of Alba, who lived from 1926 to 2014. She was one of Spain's wealthiest and most influential nobles.
In the realm of literature, Cayetana de la Cueva y de la Cerda, a Spanish noblewoman who lived from 1495 to 1522, was the subject of a famous poem by Garcilaso de la Vega, a renowned Spanish Renaissance poet.
The name Cayetana also has religious associations. Saint Cayetano (or Cajetan) was an Italian Catholic priest and theologian who lived from 1480 to 1547. He is the founder of the Theatine Order and is venerated as the patron saint of job seekers and the unemployed.
Another notable figure with the name Cayetana was Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, a Spanish journalist and politician who served as a member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2022. She was born in 1974.
Overall, the name Cayetana has a rich history spanning several centuries and has been borne by influential individuals in various fields, including nobility, religion, literature, and politics.
People
Cayetana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cayetana 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
Cayetana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cayetana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 137 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cayetana 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 2,501,856 US residents.
Is Cayetana a common name?
We classify Cayetana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 144 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cayetana most popular?
The single biggest year for Cayetana was 2023, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cayetana is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cayetana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 374 people with the name Cayetana, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,370 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 Cayetana 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 Cayetana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cayetana appears almost entirely female. Of the 369 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Cayetana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cayetana is Hispanic at 90.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.4%) and White (2.4%). 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 Cayetana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Cayetana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.4% (338 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 Cayetana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cayetana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cayetana 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 Cayetana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cayetana 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 Cayetana 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 many people have Cayetana as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.