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Candida

Girls' name

Shining white

Candida has been given to 3,580 babies in the U.S. since 1900. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1971, with 222 recorded.

Babies named Candida, 2017

1 in 596,000

Candida over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Candida: meaning, origin, and history

Shining white

Latin and Spanish

What Candida means

Candida means “shining white”, associated with candidus.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Spanish Cándida, Candida, from Latin Candida, from candida, feminine of candidus (“shining white”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Candida (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Candida is used in English and Spanish. Its origins include Latin and Spanish.

Candida comes through Spanish Cándida, Spanish Cándida,Candida and Latin Candida.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Cándida.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Candida is pronounced /kanˈdida/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,580 girls were recorded with the name Candida between 1900 and 2017. Its highest annual count was 222 in 1971; its best national rank was #686 in 1971.

How common is Candida?

Candida had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2017, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2017
1 in 596,000
6 of 3,577,106 births
Among girls only
1 in 288,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2017
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
413,245 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Candida sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2017 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 413,245 children born in 2017 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Candida. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Candidas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Candida was born before 1973 — so the typical Candida is around 52 today.

Median birth year
1973
About 52 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
38.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.5%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,915
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 38.9% of all recorded uses (1,392).

Is Candida rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1971 (222)
Years since peak
54
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#686
1971

Spellings of Candida

Candida is not the most common spelling — Candice is, with 75.5% against Candida's 4.0%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Candida is used

Across 1910–2025, Candida was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 96,558 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 25,000
  2. 2California1 in 50,000
  3. 3Texas1 in 50,000
  4. 4Colorado1 in 100,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 100,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 100,000
  7. 7Kentucky1 in 100,000
  8. 8Minnesota1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Candida has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Candida around the world

Where Candida ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2000–2000
    #3,912
    in 2000
  • France
    1918–1981
    #1,489
    in 1981
  • South Australia
    1951–1988
    #657
    in 1988

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Candida

People whose public names include Candida, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Candida in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Candida. Linked forms have their own page here.

CandiaKandidaCandideKandyda

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Candida by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#686
1971
Peak year
1971
222 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
2017
All-time count
3,580
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Candida

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CandyceRashidaZenaidaZoraidaAdelaidaCandieBriseidaCandisCandiseCandanceFloridaAleidaNereidaCandelariaCandraMeridaZaidaCanaryBetzaidaMaidaCandiceAlidaFreidaCanaan

Names with a curve like Candida

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Candida, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ChristelConsuelaSpringAnitraToyaDevonaTawannaShaneTawandaCarieShonnaMindi

Sibling names for Candida

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Candida

Top names of 1971, Candida's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1971Girls' names starting with C