Cecelia
A feminine given name of Latin origin meaning "blind" or "sightless".
Name Census estimates that about 29,588 living Americans carry the first name Cecelia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cecelia today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cecelia births was 1918 (935 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cecelia. 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 Cecelia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
30K
~ 1 in 11,584 Americans
Peak year
1918
935 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
1943 SSA rank
#568
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cecelia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 31,180 people with the first name Cecelia, which placed it at #1,226 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
#1,226
National first-name rank
People counted
31K
31,180 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cecelia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecelia is White at 65.1%. The next largest groups are Black (14.3%) and Hispanic (13.4%). 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 Cecelia 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 Cecelia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.1% · 20,283
- Black or African American14.3% · 4,445
- Hispanic or Latino13.4% · 4,176
- Two or more races3.5% · 1,088
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 633
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 555
Gender
Gender distribution for Cecelia
Out of the 59,959 babies given the name Cecelia since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Cecelia as a male name
- Ranked #3,618 in 1943
- 5 male births in 1943
- Peak: 1932 (6 births)
Cecelia as a female name
- Ranked #568 in 2024
- 529 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (935 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cecelia appears almost entirely female. Of the 31,176 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Cecelia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cecelia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 7,368 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Cecelia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cecelia 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 Cecelia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cecelias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, California recorded the most babies named Cecelia, while Nevada, Delaware, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,008 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cecelia
Cecelia is a feminine given name with Latin origins, derived from the ancient Roman family name Caecilius. It is believed to have originated from the Latin word "caecus," meaning "blind" or "blind person." The earliest known use of the name dates back to the 3rd century AD in ancient Rome.
In the early days of Christianity, the name Cecelia gained significance as it was borne by Saint Cecilia, a Roman martyr who lived in the 3rd century AD. She is venerated as the patron saint of music and musicians in the Catholic Church. Her story and martyrdom are recounted in the ancient Roman martyrologies and hagiographies.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Cecelia was Cecilia Majesta, a Roman noblewoman who lived in the 5th century AD and was known for her charitable works and piety. Another notable figure was Cecilia of Normandy (c. 1059-1126), a Countess of Burgundy and a member of the House of Normandy.
During the Middle Ages, the name Cecelia gained popularity across Europe, particularly in England and Italy. Several notable women bore this name, including Cecilia of York (1469-1507), the daughter of King Edward IV of England, and Cecilia Gallerani (1473-1536), an Italian Renaissance woman and the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.
In the 16th century, Cecilia Renata of Austria (1567-1633), a member of the House of Habsburg, was a notable figure who served as the Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania. Another prominent woman with this name was Cecilia Ferrazzi (1609-1684), an Italian Baroque painter and one of the few female artists of her time to achieve recognition.
Throughout history, several other notable individuals have borne the name Cecelia, including Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942), an American painter known for her portraits, and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), a renowned British-American astronomer and astrophysicist who made significant contributions to the understanding of stellar atmospheres.
People
Cecelia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cecelia 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
Cecelia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cecelia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,588 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cecelia 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 11,584 US residents.
Is Cecelia a common name?
We classify Cecelia as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 59,959 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cecelia most popular?
The single biggest year for Cecelia was 1918, when 935 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cecelia is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cecelia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 31,180 people with the name Cecelia, or 10.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,226 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 Cecelia 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 Cecelia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cecelia appears almost entirely female. Of the 31,176 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Cecelia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cecelia is White at 65.1%. The next largest groups are Black (14.3%) and Hispanic (13.4%). 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 Cecelia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cecelia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.1% (20,283 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 Cecelia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cecelia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cecelia 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 Cecelia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cecelia 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 Cecelia 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 the name Cecelia?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.