Cynthia
A feminine given name of Greek origin meaning "woman from the town of Kynthos" or "of the moon."
Name Census estimates that about 542,980 living Americans carry the first name Cynthia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cynthia today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cynthia births was 1957 (39,416 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cynthia. 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 Cynthia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cynthia is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,960 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Cynthia have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
543K
~ 1 in 631 Americans
Peak year
1957
39,416 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2003 SSA rank
#826
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cynthia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 597,777 people with the first name Cynthia, which placed it at #71 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
#71
National first-name rank
People counted
598K
597,777 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
197.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cynthia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cynthia is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Black (11.4%). 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 Cynthia 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 Cynthia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 415,350
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 84,577
- Black or African American11.4% · 68,037
- Two or more races2.3% · 13,647
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 12,921
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 3,245
Gender
Gender distribution for Cynthia
Out of the 713,161 babies given the name Cynthia since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Cynthia as a male name
- Ranked #11,224 in 2003
- 5 male births in 2003
- Peak: 1957 (76 births)
Cynthia as a female name
- Ranked #826 in 2024
- 331 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (39,340 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cynthia appears almost entirely female. Of the 597,780 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Cynthia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cynthia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 263,890 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
Cynthia 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 Cynthia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cynthias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Cynthia, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13,871 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cynthia
The name Cynthia has its origins in ancient Greek mythology. It is derived from the name Kynthia, an epithet of the Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis. The epithet stems from Mount Kynthos on the island of Delos, where Artemis was born and had a sanctuary.
Cynthia was a relatively common name among the ancient Greeks, particularly in the region of Delos and the surrounding islands. It is believed to have been first used as a personal name around the 5th century BC.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cynthia can be found in the works of the Roman poet Propertius, who lived from around 50 BC to 15 BC. In his elegies, he addresses his beloved as Cynthia, though it is unclear whether this was her real name or a poetic pseudonym.
Another notable figure in history bearing the name Cynthia was Cynthia Longinus, a 2nd century AD Greek philosopher and teacher of Neoplatonism. She was highly respected in her time and is said to have taught the renowned philosopher Porphyry.
During the Renaissance, the name Cynthia gained popularity among the nobility and upper classes in Europe. One notable figure from this era was Cynthia Vendramin, a 15th-century Italian noblewoman and patron of the arts, known for her beauty and intelligence.
In the 17th century, the English poet Michael Drayton wrote a collection of poems titled "Endimion and Phoebe," in which he refers to the moon goddess as Cynthia. This further popularized the name in English literature.
Another famous Cynthia in history was Cynthia of Brandenburg (1573-1625), a German princess and Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg. She was known for her intelligence and played a significant role in the politics of her time.
In more recent centuries, the name Cynthia has continued to be used, though its popularity has waxed and waned. Some notable figures include Cynthia Ozick (born 1928), an American novelist and essayist, and Cynthia Lennon (1939-2015), the first wife of John Lennon of the Beatles.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Cynthia
People
Cynthia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cynthia 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
Cynthia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cynthia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 542,980 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cynthia 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 631 US residents.
Is Cynthia a common name?
We classify Cynthia as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 713,161 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cynthia most popular?
The single biggest year for Cynthia was 1957, when 39,416 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cynthia is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cynthia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 597,777 people with the name Cynthia, or 197.92 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #71 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 Cynthia 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 Cynthia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cynthia appears almost entirely female. Of the 597,780 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Cynthia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cynthia is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.1%) and Black (11.4%). 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 Cynthia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cynthia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (415,350 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 Cynthia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cynthia a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Cynthia 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 Cynthia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cynthia 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 Cynthia 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 Cynthia?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.