Cecilia
- Pronunciation
- [Ce-ci-li-a]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Blind One
- Origin
- Romanian
About the Name Cecilia
Cecilia descends from the Latin Caecilia, the feminine form of Caecilius — a Roman family name traditionally derived from caecus meaning "blind." The Caecilii were one of the prominent patrician Roman families. The name's overwhelming Christian anchor is Saint Cecilia (2nd or 3rd century), the legendary Roman Christian virgin-martyr who is the patron saint of music, poetry, and musicians. According to her hagiography, Cecilia sang to God in her heart during her wedding ceremony and was eventually martyred for her Christian faith.
The Saint Cecilia tradition produced one of the major recurring themes of Western art: the saint is depicted holding or playing a small organ, and her feast day (November 22) became the traditional day for celebrating church music. Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel, and other major composers wrote choral works for Saint Cecilia's Day. The Roman Catacomb of Saint Cecilia in Rome is one of the major early-Christian pilgrimage sites.
Notable bearers include American socialite Cecilia Tang, British physicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979, the British-American astronomer who discovered the chemical composition of stars), and the Beatles' 1968 song "Cecilia" by Simon & Garfunkel (later covered by Paul Simon). Cecilia's American climb is part of the broader vintage-revival wave alongside Eleanor and Charlotte. The name climbed from outside the US top 200 in 2000 to the US top 150 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 100 since. The name's appeal is its layered classical-Christian-musical register combined with four flowing syllables. Common nicknames Cece, Cici, Celia, Sissy, and the rare Cili each carry distinct registers; international forms include Cecilia (Italian/Spanish/Portuguese, identical), Cécile (French), Cäcilia (German), and the original Latin Caecilia.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Cecilia
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Cecilia by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 2,506 girls named Cecilia (girl rank #108 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Cecilia Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Cecilia the strongest states are Vermont, District of Columbia, Massachusetts.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont | #70 | 32 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | #71 | 105 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #80 | 667 |
| 4 | Minnesota | #89 | 511 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #91 | 970 |
| 6 | Nebraska | #96 | 189 |
| 7 | Delaware | #97 | 52 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #98 | 295 |
| 9 | Wisconsin | #101 | 441 |
| 10 | Michigan | #105 | 721 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #406 | 55 |
| 2 | Arkansas | #319 | 81 |
| 3 | South Carolina | #302 | 152 |
| 4 | Nevada | #276 | 97 |
| 5 | Alabama | #273 | 173 |
| 6 | Georgia | #261 | 397 |
| 7 | Oklahoma | #258 | 147 |
| 8 | Tennessee | #250 | 274 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #245 | 175 |
| 10 | Idaho | #242 | 77 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Cecilia in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Cecilia?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Cecilia to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Cecilia against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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