Cesar
An ancient Roman name derived from the Latin caesaries, meaning "long-haired".
Name Census estimates that about 75,611 living Americans carry the first name Cesar. It sits at #360 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cesar today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cesar births was 2004 (2,538 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cesar. 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 Cesar with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cesar is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 315 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
76K
~ 1 in 4,533 Americans
Peak year
2004
2,538 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#360
Tracked since 1915
Census
Cesar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 121,100 people with the first name Cesar, which placed it at #465 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
#465
National first-name rank
People counted
121K
121,100 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
40.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
94.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cesar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cesar is Hispanic at 94.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5%) and White (2.1%). 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 Cesar 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 Cesar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino94.8% · 114,772
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 3,048
- White2.1% · 2,510
- Black or African American0.4% · 538
- Two or more races0.1% · 124
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 108
Gender
Gender distribution for Cesar
Out of the 78,307 babies given the name Cesar since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Cesar as a male name
- Ranked #360 in 2024
- 916 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (2,538 births)
Cesar as a female name
- Ranked #17,418 in 2012
- 5 female births in 2012
- Peak: 1991 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cesar appears almost entirely male. Of the 121,106 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Cesar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cesar from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 23,675 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cesar 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 Cesar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cesars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cesar, while Hawaii, Wyoming, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,764 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cesar
The name Cesar originated from the Roman family name Caesar, which was derived from the Latin word "caesaries" meaning "hair" or "head of hair." It is believed that the name was originally given to someone with a fine head of hair. The name first became popular during the time of Gaius Julius Caesar, the famous Roman general, statesman, and dictator who lived from 100-44 BCE.
Caesar's military victories and political influence made his name synonymous with power and leadership in the Roman Empire. As a result, the name Cesar gained widespread popularity and was adopted by various cultures and languages throughout Europe and beyond.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cesar can be found in the New Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Philippians, the apostle Paul mentions a member of Caesar's household who had converted to Christianity. This reference suggests that the name was in use among the Roman upper class during the 1st century CE.
Throughout history, several notable figures bore the name Cesar. One of the most renowned was Cesar Borgia (1475-1507), an Italian Renaissance prince and son of Pope Alexander VI. He was a skilled military leader and a powerful political figure in Italy during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
Another famous Cesar was Cesar Chavez (1927-1993), an American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later renamed the United Farm Workers union). He was a prominent figure in the fight for better working conditions and rights for farm workers in the United States.
In the realm of literature, Cesar Vallejo (1892-1938) was a Peruvian poet and writer considered one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century in the Spanish language. His works, such as "Los heraldos negros" and "Trilce," explored themes of existentialism, social injustice, and the human condition.
The name Cesar also gained historical significance in the Caribbean and Latin America. Cesar Augusto Sandino (1895-1934) was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion against the United States' occupation of Nicaragua in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He became a symbol of resistance and national sovereignty in Nicaragua and throughout Latin America.
Another notable figure with this name was Cesar Milstein (1927-2002), an Argentine biochemist and molecular biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 for his pioneering work in developing monoclonal antibody technology, which revolutionized the field of immunology.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Cesar
People
Cesar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cesar 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
Cesar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cesar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 75,611 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cesar 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 4,533 US residents.
Is Cesar a common name?
We classify Cesar as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 78,307 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cesar most popular?
The single biggest year for Cesar was 2004, when 2,538 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cesar is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cesar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 121,100 people with the name Cesar, or 40.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #465 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 Cesar 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 Cesar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cesar appears almost entirely male. Of the 121,106 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Cesar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cesar is Hispanic at 94.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (2.5%) and White (2.1%). 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 Cesar most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Cesar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.8% (114,772 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 Cesar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cesar a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Cesar in the SSA data are male. 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 Cesar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cesar 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 Cesar 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 Americans are named Cesar?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.