Cecelie
A female given name of French origin meaning "blind" or "blind one".
Name Census estimates that about 29 living Americans carry the first name Cecelie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cecelie today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cecelie births was 1989 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cecelie. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Cecelie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
29
~ 1 in 11,819,115 Americans
Peak year
1989
13 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1990 SSA rank
#10,385
Tracked since 1961
Popularity
Cecelie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cecelie from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 18 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Cecelie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cecelie 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 Cecelie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cecelies live
Origin
Meaning and history of Cecelie
The name Cecelie is derived from the Latin name Caecilia, which in turn comes from the Roman family name Caecilius, possibly relating to the Latin word "caecus" meaning "blind". This name has its origins in ancient Rome, dating back to the 1st century BCE.
Caecilia was the name of a young Christian martyr who suffered death for her faith in the 3rd century CE under the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. She is one of the most famous saints in the Catholic Church and is the patroness of church music and musicians. Her feast day is celebrated on November 22nd.
The name Cecelie gained popularity in medieval Europe, particularly in England and France, where it was commonly spelled as "Cecily" or "Cecilie". One of the earliest recorded bearers of this name was Cecily Neville (1415-1495), the Duchess of York and mother of two Kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III.
Another notable figure was Cecily Bonville (c.1460-1529), an English baroness and the wealthiest heiress in England during her time. She was an influential figure in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
In literature, the name Cecelie appears in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" from the late 14th century, where one of the characters is named "Cecilie". This helped to popularize the name in England during the Middle Ages.
In the 16th century, Cecilia Hsieh (1542-1618) was a Chinese Catholic martyr who was canonized by the Catholic Church in 2000 for her faith and martyrdom during the Ming Dynasty.
Cecilia Renata of Austria (1611-1644) was a Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania, noted for her involvement in Polish politics and her support for the Catholic Church.
People
Cecelie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cecelie 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
Cecelie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cecelie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cecelie 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 11,819,115 US residents.
Is Cecelie a common name?
We classify Cecelie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 46% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cecelie most popular?
The single biggest year for Cecelie was 1989, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cecelie is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Cecelie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cecelie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cecelie 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 Cecelie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cecelie 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 Cecelie 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people share the name Cecelie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.