Cynda
A feminine variant of the Welsh name Cynddelw, meaning "bright leader".
Name Census estimates that about 469 living Americans carry the first name Cynda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cynda today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cynda births was 1947 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cynda. 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
469
~ 1 in 730,819 Americans
Peak year
1947
33 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
1999 SSA rank
#14,926
Tracked since 1940
Census
Cynda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 664 people with the first name Cynda, which placed it at #16,834 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
#16,834
National first-name rank
People counted
664
664 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cynda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cynda is White at 86.7%. The next largest groups are Black (4.7%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Cynda 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 Cynda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.7% · 576
- Black or African American4.7% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 22
- Two or more races2.6% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 9
Popularity
Cynda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cynda from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 223 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cynda 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 Cynda 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 Cynda
The name Cynda has its origins in Old English, dating back to the 5th century AD. It is believed to be derived from the Old English word "cyne," which means "royal" or "noble." The name was likely used to denote one's high social status or lineage in Anglo-Saxon England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cynda can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals that documented the history of the Anglo-Saxons from the 9th century onwards. In the entry for the year 675 AD, a woman named Cynda is mentioned as the wife of King Cenwalh of Wessex.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Cynda was relatively uncommon but not unheard of. One notable figure bearing this name was Cynda of Mercia (c. 810 - 865 AD), a princess of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia who later became a nun and was eventually canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
In the 11th century, a woman named Cynda is recorded as being a member of the court of King Canute the Great, the Danish king who ruled over England from 1016 to 1035 AD. Her exact role or position is not clear, but her inclusion in the royal court suggests that she was a person of some importance.
Another prominent figure with the name Cynda was Cynda of Anjou (1092 - 1154), a French noblewoman and countess who played a significant role in the political and cultural affairs of the Angevin Empire during the 12th century.
Lastly, in the 13th century, Cynda of Gloucester (1215 - 1287) was a notable English abbess who served as the head of the Benedictine abbey in Gloucester, England. She was known for her piety and her efforts to improve the living conditions of the nuns under her care.
While the name Cynda fell out of widespread use in later centuries, it remains an intriguing glimpse into the rich history and heritage of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods in England and Europe.
People
Cynda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cynda 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
Cynda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cynda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 469 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cynda 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 730,819 US residents.
Is Cynda a common name?
We classify Cynda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 642 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cynda most popular?
The single biggest year for Cynda was 1947, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cynda is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cynda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 664 people with the name Cynda, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,834 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 Cynda 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 Cynda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cynda appears almost entirely female. Of the 656 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Cynda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cynda is White at 86.7%. The next largest groups are Black (4.7%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Cynda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cynda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.7% (576 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 Cynda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cynda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cynda 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 Cynda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cynda 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 Cynda 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 Cynda?
See how many Americans are named Cynda on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.