boy's name
Cesar
say-ZAR
- Origin Latin
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 92,611
the United States
#385
2025 births
Cesar is a boy's name from the Roman family name Caesar, whose own meaning the Romans could not agree on. It ranks 137th in France and 385th in the United States, and it is falling in our data.
- Cesar is a name of Latin origin.
- Peaked in 2004, when 2,538 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,023 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1915.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Cesar over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 40 |
| 1920s | 138 |
| 1930s | 182 |
| 1940s | 332 |
| 1950s | 868 |
| 1960s | 2,161 |
| 1970s | 6,202 |
| 1980s | 9,245 |
| 1990s | 17,955 |
| 2000s | 23,677 |
| 2010s | 13,089 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,250 |
What Cesar means
Cesar has no settled meaning. The Romans themselves offered four explanations for Caesar — a full head of hair, gray eyes, killing an elephant, and being cut from the womb — which is a good sign that none of them knew.
Where Cesar comes from
Cesar is the French and Spanish form of Caesar, a cognomen of the Julian family. Its derivation was already lost by the late Republic: the Historia Augusta lists four competing explanations, from caesaries, a head of hair, from caesius, gray-eyed, from an ancestor killing an elephant — caesai being claimed as the Moorish word — and from caedere, to cut, referring to birth. The caesarean section takes its name from that last reading, which is almost certainly wrong in both directions, since Caesar's mother lived for decades afterward and the operation was then fatal. What is certain is what happened to the word: after Julius Caesar it became a title rather than a name, and it survives as Kaiser in German and Tsar in Russian, both of them the same word worn down by two thousand years.
Cesar in use
Cesar ranks 137th in France with about 440 births in 2025 and 385th in the United States with 824 births, where Hispanic use carries most of the volume. It is falling in our data from a peak in 2004. Our records carry it from 1915. César with an accent appears separately in French records, which splits the French total between two entries.
How popular is Cesar?
In 2025, Cesar was given to 824 babies in the United States, ranking #385 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Cesar 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 Cesar is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| César | César is Cesar written with an acute accent in France, and the spelling parents there overwhelmingly choose: it ranks #137 in France, against #6,104 for Cesar. | 4,750 |
Names that peaked alongside Cesar
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Cesar also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Cesar over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Cesar 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.
- Italian
- Cesare
Sibling names for Cesar
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Cesar — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Cesar
What does the name Cesar mean?
Nobody knows. The Romans themselves offered four different explanations, which suggests the derivation was already lost.
Is the caesarean section named after Caesar?
That is the traditional claim and it is almost certainly wrong — his mother survived, and the operation was fatal at the time.
Are Kaiser and Tsar the same word?
Yes. Both descend from Caesar, which became a title after Julius Caesar rather than staying a name.
How popular is Cesar?
137th in France and 385th in the United States.
Is Cesar a girl's or a boy's name?
Cesar is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Cesar?
Cesar has 2 syllables.
Is Cesar a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Cesar currently ranks #137 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.