boy's name
Cecil
SES-il
- Origin English
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 115,239
Ireland
#290
1988 births
Cecil means blind, from a Roman family name, and the saint who made it famous is patron of music on the strength of one ambiguous line in her own account of her wedding day.
- Cecil is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1920, when 2,672 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 27,861 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Cecil over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,000 |
| 1890s | 2,769 |
| 1900s | 4,792 |
| 1910s | 17,799 |
| 1920s | 24,003 |
| 1930s | 17,253 |
| 1940s | 15,392 |
| 1950s | 12,287 |
| 1960s | 7,561 |
| 1970s | 4,255 |
| 1980s | 3,022 |
| 1990s | 1,726 |
| 2000s | 1,113 |
| 2010s | 1,016 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 688 |
What Cecil means
Cecil means blind. The Latin caecus is the ordinary adjective for it, and the word named an entire Roman family rather than describing every individual who happened to carry it.
Where Cecil comes from
Cecil descends from the Roman gens name Caecilius, built on caecus, blind — a byname that attached to an ancestor and passed to the whole family, as Roman names generally did. Saint Cecilia is patron of music because her acts record that she sang in her heart to God during her wedding, a line that later tradition read as musical and that produced centuries of odes, oratorios and academies in her name. The Welsh Seisyllt was assimilated to it, which is how the Cecil family of Burghley acquired the spelling.
Cecil in use
Cecil peaked in the United States in 1920, when 2,672 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It charts in three of the seven markets we track — 1489th in the United States on 119 births, 2215th in Canada and 4708th in England and Wales — across 115,239 lifetime births. About seven percent of recorded births are female, from the overlap with Cecile and Cecilia.
How popular is Cecil?
In 2025, Cecil was given to 119 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Cecil is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Cecil is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Cécil | Cécil is a rare spelling of Cecil, written with an acute accent and recorded about 25 times, mostly in France. | 25 |
Names that peaked alongside Cecil
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Cecil also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Cecil over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Cecil in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Cecil
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Cecil — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Cecil
What does the name Cecil mean?
Blind — the Latin caecus, through the Roman family name Caecilius.
Why is Saint Cecilia the patron of music?
Her acts say she sang in her heart to God at her wedding — one line that later tradition read as musical.
Is Cecil related to the Welsh Seisyllt?
A separate name assimilated to the same spelling, which is how the Cecil family acquired it.
How popular is Cecil?
1489th in the United States, and our data marks it stable.
Is Cecil a girl's or a boy's name?
Cecil is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Cecil?
Cecil has 2 syllables.
Is Cecil a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Cecil currently ranks #1,489 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.