Cindy
- Pronunciation
- [Cin-dy]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Abbreviation Of Cynthia And Lucinda.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Cindy
Cindy developed in the twentieth century as a short form of Cynthia — a Greek epithet of the goddess Artemis, meaning "woman from Cynthus" (a mountain on Delos) — and of Lucinda, itself a literary elaboration of Lucy. Cindy has no independent ancient etymology; it belongs to the mid-century tradition of American pet-name forms that gained full given-name status through widespread cultural use rather than classical precedent. Its bright, two-syllable sound fitted naturally into the postwar naming wave that prized approachable, cheerful feminine names — short enough to feel friendly, long enough to carry through a lifetime without feeling diminished.
The name's most enduring contemporary face is Cindy Crawford, born 1966, an American model, businesswoman, and TV personality whose four-decade career produced multiple defining late-1980s and 1990s international high-fashion-modeling roles, making her one of the original supermodels and a fixture of American popular culture across two decades.
Cindy first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1953 and reached its peak of #19 in 1957, a remarkably swift four-year climb that reflected the name's sudden cultural momentum. It remained on the charts until 2014, when it ranked #711 — a 61-year run that spans a full naming generation. Today it carries the warm, specific nostalgia of the 1950s and 1960s while remaining familiar enough for contemporary use. Recorded variants are Cinda, Cindee, and Syndi.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Cindy
US Popularity History (1953–2014)
Annual US births named Cindy by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1957 with 20,272 girls named Cindy (girl rank #19 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2014, ranked #711 for girls (395 US births). That's 692 places below its 1957 peak.
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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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cinda | Abbreviation Of Cynthia And Lucinda. | Female | English |
Famous People Named Cindy
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Cindy.
- Cindy Crawford — Model (1966)
Looking for names like Cindy?
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 Cindy to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Cindy against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).