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Cecily

#1,541 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly blind, through Cecilia

Cecily has been given to 8,673 babies in the U.S. since 1911. In 2025 it ranked #1,541 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1989, with 472 recorded.

Babies named Cecily, 2025

1 in 24,200

Cecily over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cecily: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly blind, through Cecilia

Latin

What Cecily means

Cecily belongs to the name family reached through Cecily → Cecilia. Its meaning is “blind”.

Origin, language, and formation

Cecily is used in English. Its origins include Latin.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Cecilia.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,673 girls were recorded with the name Cecily between 1911 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 472 in 1989; its best national rank was #498 in 1989.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,595 in 2020 to #1,541 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,176 in 2015 to #1,541 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Cecily?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 24,200
137 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 11,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,541
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
16,774 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cecily 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 2025 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 5002%

Put another way: gather 16,774 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cecily. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cecilys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Cecily was born before 1992 — so the typical Cecily is around 33 today.

Median birth year
1992
About 33 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
18.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
38.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
8,070
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 18.8% of all recorded uses (1,633).

Is Cecily 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
+60
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+54
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−365
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.64×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
29.0%
Peak was 1989 (472)
Years since peak
36
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#498
1989

Spellings of Cecily

Cecily is not the most common spelling — Emily is, with 84.7% against Cecily's 0.82%.

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 Cecily is used

Across 2016–2025, Cecily was most concentrated in Massachusetts — about 1 in 6,667 girls, against 1 in 13,093 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in 50,000).

215 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Massachusetts1 in 6,667
  2. 2Illinois1 in 7,692
  3. 3Pennsylvania1 in 7,692
  4. 4Michigan1 in 8,333
  5. 5Ohio1 in 8,333
  6. 6Utah1 in 8,333
  7. 7Virginia1 in 10,000
  8. 8Colorado1 in 11,111

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.

Cecily around the world

Where Cecily 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
    1996–2025
    #514
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1964–2022
    #905
    in 2022
  • France
    1975–2017
    #6,265
    in 2017
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,542
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–2013
    #818
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Cecily

People whose public names include Cecily, 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.

Cecily in other languages

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

CecilaCicely

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

Cecily by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,541
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 54
Best rank ever
#498
1989
Peak year
1989
472 that year
First recorded
1911
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,673
Count in 2025
137

Names similar to Cecily

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

CecileCecilKeilyCeceliaSicilyHailyKailyCeciliaEmmilyMarilyCecilaBailySahilySheilyCecilieThailyMerrilyCecilleCeceHeilyMailyCecliaCicilyReily

Names with a curve like Cecily

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

MarcelaStormyElanaAdinaAyeshaNoelIleanaShoshanaLeannaKoriIlanaCelina

Sibling names for Cecily

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 Cecily

Top names of 1989, Cecily's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1989Girls' names starting with CMedieval Names