Cyrus

About Cyrus

Cyrus is the Latin form of Greek Kyros, from the Old Persian name Kuruš. Its original meaning is uncertain. Cyrus the Great gives it a major place in ancient history, while inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick supplies a later American connection with agricultural machinery and manufacturing.

An ancient name with an uncertain meaning

Proposed meanings of Kuruš include “young” and “humiliator of the enemy”, but neither is established beyond dispute. An Elamite origin has also been suggested.

The name has sometimes been associated with Greek kyrios, “lord,” although that resemblance does not settle the older Persian name's derivation.

Cyrus entered English use among Puritans after the Protestant Reformation. Its biblical and ancient historical associations helped keep it available beyond the languages in which the oldest forms arose.

Ciro is an Italian form, Koresh reflects the biblical Hebrew form, and Cy is an established English shortening.

The English pronunciation is SY-rus, with two syllables and emphasis on the first. The opening Cy has the same long i sound heard in sky.

Cyrus the Great and Babylon

Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the sixth century BC. He conquered Babylon in 539 BC, bringing a major Mesopotamian kingdom under Persian rule.

The Cyrus Cylinder preserves a Babylonian account of that conquest. Made of clay and covered in cuneiform writing, it also describes the restoration of divine statues removed by the earlier king Nabonidus.

The text records royal actions at Babylon, including work on the city and the return of cult images to temples. It provides a material connection with Cyrus's rule alongside later written traditions.

In the Old Testament, Cyrus is remembered for allowing exiled Jews to return after the conquest. That biblical association helped the ancient royal name travel into later Christian naming.

Cyrus Hall McCormick

Cyrus Hall McCormick developed agricultural machinery associated with the mechanical reaper. The Smithsonian holds models illustrating the design connected with his 1831 machine.

In 1847, McCormick opened a factory near Chicago, using standardized parts to make production more efficient. The achievement involved manufacturing organization as well as the cutting mechanism itself.

By the mid-1880s, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was selling more than 50,000 reapers a year. The scale of that business gives Cyrus a substantial association with nineteenth-century industrial agriculture.

The inventor's name connects the same classical spelling with a very different setting from ancient Persia: farms, machinery, and the growth of American manufacturing.

American popularity

Cyrus's largest published annual count for boys in the United States came in 2024, with 1,389 births. Its strongest ranking was #216 in 1880.

There were 397 boys named Cyrus in 2000 and 535 in 2010. In 2025, 1,284 boys received the name, ranking #268.

Its recent count is therefore much higher than at the beginning of the century, even though the best ranking in the long series belongs to its earliest year.

How popular is Cyrus?

In 2025, Cyrus ranked #268 among boys in the United States, with 1,284 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 1,389 in 2024. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.