Cecile
Cecile was given to 22 girls in 2025, #5,591 among girls’ names; 20,612 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,870 Americans named Cecile and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (29% of everyone recorded); the median is 70 years old and half are between 53 and 81.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cecile by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cecile mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cecile is “a female given name from Latin.”
From French Cécile, from Anglo-Norman Cecile, from Latin Caecilia.
/səˈsiːl/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cecile?
#5,591 among girls’ names, 2025
Cecile fell from #5,011 in 2015 to #5,591 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 15.1 to 13.7 per million.
503 babies in 1918, the peak
Cecile peaked in 1918, when 503 babies were given it (495 girls, #284 among girls’ names). The 22 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 22 | #5,591 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 22 | #5,656 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 16 | #6,991 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 20 | #6,037 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 25 | #5,115 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 25 | #5,040 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 21 | #5,830 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 24 | #5,342 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 24 | #5,397 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 25 | #5,313 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (146)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 27 | #5,011 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 19 | #6,505 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 22 | #5,857 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 29 | #4,857 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 25 | #5,398 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 21 | #6,224 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 26 | #5,419 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 23 | #5,980 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 30 | #4,837 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 30 | #4,707 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 23 | #5,472 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 28 | #4,726 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 31 | #4,231 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 22 | #5,292 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 29 | #4,230 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 20 | #5,525 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 21 | #5,061 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 25 | #4,384 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 20 | #5,050 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 28 | #3,846 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 26 | #3,991 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 34 | #3,306 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 30 | #3,604 | 0.02 |
| 1992 | 31 | #3,509 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 37 | #3,034 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 43 | #2,697 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 54 | #2,220 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 32 | #3,095 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 35 | #2,789 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 20 | #4,051 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 36 | #2,661 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 49 | #2,053 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 35 | #2,554 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 44 | #2,257 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 45 | #2,234 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 52 | #2,019 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 30 | #2,871 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 22 | #3,404 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 29 | #2,786 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 26 | #2,875 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 39 | #2,173 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 30 | #2,504 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 35 | #2,227 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 37 | #2,104 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 36 | #2,216 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 51 | #1,762 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 56 | #1,592 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 53 | #1,576 | 0.03 |
| 1967 | 61 | #1,417 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 53 | #1,533 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 77 | #1,227 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 77 | #1,254 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 119 | #974 | 0.06 |
| 1962 | 124 | #954 | 0.06 |
| 1961 | 135 | #923 | 0.07 |
| 1960 | 140 | #878 | 0.07 |
| 1959 | 173 | #773 | 0.09 |
| 1958 | 185 | #724 | 0.09 |
| 1957 | 186 | #733 | 0.09 |
| 1956 | 166 | #754 | 0.08 |
| 1955 | 159 | #749 | 0.08 |
| 1954 | 163 | #721 | 0.08 |
| 1953 | 195 | #638 | 0.10 |
| 1952 | 203 | #613 | 0.11 |
| 1951 | 184 | #638 | 0.10 |
| 1950 | 196 | #600 | 0.11 |
| 1949 | 196 | #592 | 0.11 |
| 1948 | 214 | #569 | 0.13 |
| 1947 | 234 | #555 | 0.13 |
| 1946 | 225 | #523 | 0.14 |
| 1945 | 198 | #516 | 0.15 |
| 1944 | 214 | #492 | 0.16 |
| 1943 | 280 | #444 | 0.20 |
| 1942 | 282 | #429 | 0.21 |
| 1941 | 243 | #439 | 0.20 |
| 1940 | 310 | #372 | 0.27 |
| 1939 | 320 | #364 | 0.29 |
| 1938 | 313 | #371 | 0.28 |
| 1937 | 357 | #330 | 0.34 |
| 1936 | 359 | #326 | 0.35 |
| 1935 | 270 | #389 | 0.26 |
| 1934 | 210 | #450 | 0.20 |
| 1933 | 206 | #457 | 0.20 |
| 1932 | 235 | #428 | 0.22 |
| 1931 | 260 | #403 | 0.24 |
| 1930 | 295 | #395 | 0.26 |
| 1929 | 306 | #383 | 0.27 |
| 1928 | 328 | #377 | 0.28 |
| 1927 | 371 | #350 | 0.31 |
| 1926 | 378 | #344 | 0.32 |
| 1925 | 409 | #330 | 0.34 |
| 1924 | 422 | #327 | 0.34 |
| 1923 | 474 | #296 | 0.39 |
| 1922 | 422 | #316 | 0.35 |
| 1921 | 475 | #301 | 0.39 |
| 1920 | 482 | #297 | 0.40 |
| 1919 | 478 | #293 | 0.42 |
| 1918 | 495 | #284 | 0.43 |
| 1917 | 476 | #284 | 0.44 |
| 1916 | 417 | #295 | 0.40 |
| 1915 | 468 | #272 | 0.48 |
| 1914 | 351 | #280 | 0.46 |
| 1913 | 282 | #280 | 0.45 |
| 1912 | 275 | #270 | 0.49 |
| 1911 | 184 | #288 | 0.44 |
| 1910 | 187 | #284 | 0.47 |
| 1909 | 186 | #263 | 0.54 |
| 1908 | 155 | #282 | 0.46 |
| 1907 | 156 | #280 | 0.49 |
| 1906 | 163 | #257 | 0.55 |
| 1905 | 161 | #258 | 0.55 |
| 1904 | 173 | #234 | 0.63 |
| 1903 | 159 | #239 | 0.61 |
| 1902 | 181 | #222 | 0.69 |
| 1901 | 133 | #252 | 0.56 |
| 1900 | 175 | #246 | 0.58 |
| 1899 | 147 | #227 | 0.63 |
| 1898 | 172 | #221 | 0.66 |
| 1897 | 121 | #257 | 0.52 |
| 1896 | 144 | #231 | 0.61 |
| 1895 | 109 | #267 | 0.47 |
| 1894 | 102 | #275 | 0.46 |
| 1893 | 86 | #291 | 0.40 |
| 1892 | 92 | #278 | 0.43 |
| 1891 | 79 | #277 | 0.43 |
| 1890 | 71 | #294 | 0.37 |
| 1889 | 67 | #294 | 0.38 |
| 1888 | 81 | #256 | 0.45 |
| 1887 | 34 | #368 | 0.23 |
| 1886 | 43 | #319 | 0.30 |
| 1885 | 32 | #355 | 0.24 |
| 1884 | 29 | #369 | 0.22 |
| 1883 | 35 | #294 | 0.31 |
| 1882 | 27 | #344 | 0.25 |
| 1881 | 24 | #326 | 0.26 |
| 1880 | 17 | #405 | 0.19 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cecile a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cecile has been given almost only to girls: 191 boys in 146 years of records.
Girls and boys named Cecile: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cecile, and how old are they?
5,870 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 29% of the 20,612 Americans ever recorded as Cecile. The median Cecile alive today is 70 years old; half are between 53 and 81.
The 2020 Census counted 9,689 people named Cecile (9,598 women and girls, 91 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,173 born in the U.S. The Census count is 35% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1,460 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,490 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 633 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 562 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 399 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 290 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Cecile born?
The states with the most babies named Cecile are Massachusetts, New York and Louisiana, with 38% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Massachusetts and Louisiana are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 1,978 | not ranked | 3.4× |
| New York | 1,510 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Louisiana | 1,443 | not ranked | 3.9× |
| Maine | 1,017 | not ranked | 8.5× |
| New Hampshire | 780 | not ranked | 10.6× |
| California | 743 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Rhode Island | 613 | not ranked | 5.9× |
| Illinois | 573 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Texas | 568 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 408 | not ranked | 0.6× |
Where Cecile is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cecile is most over-represented in New Hampshire: since 1910 it was given 10.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Cecile with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 143,947 babies since 1880, Cecile is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 22 of their 2,684 babies (<1%), the third most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cecile
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cecile and names like it
- Compare Cecile and CeciliaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sCecile peaked in 1918.
- Massachusetts’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cecile since 1910.
- Latin namesWiktionary’s origin for Cecile: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Cecile.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Cecile alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with CMost given first.