Cyrus: Meaning of Baby Name Cyrus

About the Name Cyrus

Cyrus descends from the Greek Kŷros (Κῦρος), ultimately from the Old Persian Kūruš — possibly meaning "sun" or connected to the Old Iranian kura (young man, hero). The name's overwhelming historical anchor is Cyrus the Great (c. 600–530 BCE), the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire — one of the largest empires in ancient history, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley.

The biblical Cyrus the Great is praised in the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah 45:1) for his decree allowing the Babylonian-exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple — making Cyrus one of the few non-Israelite figures honored as an instrument of God in Hebrew Scripture. Other notable bearers include American film director Cyrus West; American actress Miley Cyrus (using Cyrus as a surname, born 1992, the iconic American singer-actress whose career through Disney's Hannah Montana 2006–2011 and her transition to mainstream pop made her one of the foundational early-21st-century American figures).

Cyrus's American climb is part of the broader 21st-century American taste for ancient-classical boys' names alongside Atlas, Cassius, and Augustus. The name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 2000 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and the top 300 since. The name has been driven primarily by Persian-American naming and the broader American taste for ancient-imperial names. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Persian-imperial-biblical pedigree, the in-built distinctive emperor-historical sophistication, and the popular two-syllable structure with the distinctive C-Y-R consonant rhythm. The name reads as both classical-Persian and contemporary American with the strong Miley Cyrus modern cultural anchor. Common nicknames Cy (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Cyrie, and the rare Russy each carry distinct registers; international forms include Ciro (Italian/Spanish), Kyros (Greek), Cyrus (essentially identical across English/French), and the original Old Persian Kūruš.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Cyrus

1,029

Greek baby names in our dictionary

484

Greek male names

212

5-letter C-names in our dictionary

791

C-male names total

2000–2025

years of US SSA records (26 total)

18,174

total US births named Cyrus (all years)

US Popularity History (2000–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Cyrus climbed 101 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#369 in 2020 → #268 in 2025).

Annual US births named Cyrus by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 1,380 boys named Cyrus (boy rank #254 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #268 for boys (1,284 US births). That's 14 places below its 2024 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.

Where in the US Is Cyrus Most Popular?

Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Cyrus the strongest states are Alaska, Maine, District of Columbia.

Strongest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Alaska	#162	32
2	Maine	#173	40
3	District of Columbia	#177	40
4	Hawaii	#191	42
5	Rhode Island	#194	22
6	New Hampshire	#212	23
7	Idaho	#215	69
8	West Virginia	#230	65
9	South Dakota	#259	15
10	Oregon	#283	142

Weakest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Louisiana	#494	88
2	New Jersey	#473	140
3	Alabama	#472	90
4	Georgia	#471	203
5	Texas	#457	663
6	Illinois	#447	230
7	Oklahoma	#432	101
8	Mississippi	#424	22
9	Florida	#420	419
10	Arizona	#418	165

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Cyrus in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Cy	Master: Lord.	Male	English

Famous People Named Cyrus

1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Cyrus.

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry is an eminent Irish-Indian entrepreneur and the current Chairman of Tata Group of Companies.

Browse more famous Cyruss and similar first names →

Looking for names like Cyrus?

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.

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Compare Cyrus to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Cyrus against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Cyrus vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014

Cyrus vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014

Cyrus vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014

Cyrus vs William 159,918 births since 2014

Cyrus vs James 157,850 births since 2014

Cyrus vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014

Cyrus vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014

Cyrus vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014

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