Cecily
A feminine given name of Latin origin meaning "blind".
Name Census estimates that about 7,642 living Americans carry the first name Cecily. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cecily today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cecily births was 1989 (472 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cecily. 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
7.6K
~ 1 in 44,851 Americans
Peak year
1989
472 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,595
Tracked since 1911
Popularity
Cecily: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cecily from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,632 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Cecily remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cecily 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 Cecily during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cecilys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cecily, while South Carolina, Oklahoma, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 126 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cecily
The name Cecily has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is derived from the Greek name Kekilia, which means "blind" or "unseeing". This root name can be traced back to the 3rd century BC and the time of Ancient Greece.
The name Cecily is a feminine form of the masculine name Cecilio or Cecil, which traveled from Greek to Latin usage. As the Roman Empire expanded across Europe, the name spread and took on various spellings like Caecilia, Cecille, and eventually the English Cecily.
One of the earliest known references to this name is Saint Cecilia, a Roman martyr from the 3rd century AD. She is the patron saint of musicians and is often depicted in art playing the organ or other instruments. Her feast day on November 22nd helped popularize the name during the Middle Ages.
The first recorded instance of the spelling Cecily dates back to the 12th century in England. One notable bearer was Cecily Neville (1415-1495), an English noblewoman who was the mother of two English kings, Edward IV and Richard III.
Other famous people named Cecily throughout history include:
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (1415-1495), an English princess and nobility figure.
Cecily Lefort (c.1550-c.1600), an English courtier and one of the first English professional female poets.
Cecily Brownstone (1923-2005), an Australian poet, playwright, and author.
Cecily von Ziegesar (born 1970), an American author best known for the Gossip Girl book series.
Cecily Strong (born 1984), an American actress and comedian who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
People
Cecily + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cecily 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
Cecily: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cecily?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,642 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cecily 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 44,851 US residents.
Is Cecily a common name?
We classify Cecily as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,535 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cecily most popular?
The single biggest year for Cecily was 1989, when 472 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cecily is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Cecily a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cecily 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.
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.