Cade
Meaning
modern short name, possibly from Welsh Cadell "battle"
The story
Cade is one syllable our records trace, with honest hedging, possibly to the Welsh Cadell, battle, and its American life is pure late-century: about 490 in the 1970s, 860, then 4,600 in the 1990s, cresting at 13,700 in the 2000s, and settling through 8,400 to 6,900 so far this decade. It rides with Tate and Colt in the one-syllable squad these batches have collected, names that sound like decisions, and its crest-and-settle shape is the standard arc of that 1990s-2000s cohort: the Cades are in high school and college now, and their younger brothers are named Kai and Jax. In our records it goes to boys about 34,800 to 150. The battle in the etymology stays hypothetical, hedged even in our own field; the appeal was never the meaning but the click of the close.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Cade peaked in the 2000s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
When you meet Cade
Most people given the name Cade in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Cade deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Cade truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Cade fits with your family’s names and surname.
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