Cybelle
Feminine name of Greek mythology meaning "Mother of the Gods".
Name Census estimates that about 24 living Americans carry the first name Cybelle. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cybelle today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cybelle births was 2000 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cybelle. 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 Cybelle. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
24
~ 1 in 14,281,431 Americans
Peak year
2000
6 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2011 SSA rank
#17,386
Tracked since 1963
Census
Cybelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 144 people with the first name Cybelle, which placed it at #46,371 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
#46,371
National first-name rank
People counted
144
144 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cybelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cybelle is White at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.0%). 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 Cybelle 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 Cybelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.9% · 79
- Hispanic or Latino23.6% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.0% · 13
- Two or more races7.6% · 11
- Black or African American4.2% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1
Popularity
Cybelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cybelle from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Cybelle remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cybelle 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 Cybelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cybelle
The name Cybelle is derived from the ancient Greek Κυβέλη (Kybele), the name of an Anatolian mother goddess. The name itself is of uncertain origin, though it may be related to the Phrygian word "kybelion," meaning mountain. Cybele was an important fertility deity in ancient Greek and Roman religion, celebrated with ecstatic rites and wild dancing.
The earliest known attestation of the name Cybele comes from cuneiform tablets dating back to the 18th century BCE, referring to the goddess worshipped in the region of Phrygia, now part of modern-day Turkey. Her cult spread throughout the Mediterranean world, and she was equated with the Roman goddess Magna Mater, or Great Mother.
In classical mythology, Cybele is often depicted as a powerful figure crowned with a turreted crown, riding a chariot drawn by lions. She is associated with the castrated priests known as Galli, who engaged in ritualistic self-mutilation and frenzied drumming as part of her worship.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Cybelle was Cybelle of Smyrna, a Greek poet who lived in the 3rd century BCE. She was renowned for her epic poem on the Trojan War, which has unfortunately been lost to history.
Another notable figure was Cybelle of Thessaly, a Greek priestess and prophetess who lived in the 1st century BCE. According to ancient sources, she was known for her prophetic abilities and was consulted by many prominent figures of her time, including the Roman general Pompey.
In the Middle Ages, the name Cybelle gained popularity among Christians, possibly due to its association with the Virgin Mary as a mother figure. One notable bearer was Cybelle of Champagne (c. 1180-1240), a French noblewoman and crusader who accompanied her husband on the Sixth Crusade to the Holy Land.
During the Renaissance, the name was popularized by the Italian humanist scholar Cybelle Paleotti (1508-1567), who was known for her expertise in classical literature and her patronage of the arts.
In the 19th century, the name was notably borne by Cybelle Favarti (1827-1896), a French operatic soprano who achieved widespread fame for her performances in the works of Gounod, Verdi, and Meyerbeer.
People
Cybelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cybelle 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
Cybelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cybelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cybelle 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 14,281,431 US residents.
Is Cybelle a common name?
We classify Cybelle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cybelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Cybelle was 2000, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cybelle is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cybelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 144 people with the name Cybelle, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,371 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 Cybelle 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 Cybelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cybelle appears almost entirely female. Of the 145 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Cybelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cybelle is White at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.0%). 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 Cybelle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cybelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.9% (79 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 Cybelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cybelle a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cybelle 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 Cybelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cybelle 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 Cybelle 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 Cybelle?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.