Cecilia
Meaning
from the Roman family name Caecilius, traditionally linked to Latin caecus, 'blind'; a favorite name in Hong Kong; carried by film star Cecilia Cheung
Goes by CeCe, Celia
Also written Cecília.
Name day: November 22 in the Roman calendar of saints (Saint Cecilia of Rome).
The story
Cecilia began as the feminine form of an ancient Roman family name, traditionally linked to the Latin caecus, 'blind.' Its lasting light came from Saint Cecilia, the Roman martyr honored as the patron of music. Painters placed instruments around her, composers wrote for her feast, and Simon & Garfunkel turned her name into a pop chorus in 1970. The American curve does not jump with the song. Cecilia was steady early in the century, dipped around midcentury, then began a gradual revival that strengthened through the 2000s and reached its highest level in the 2010s and 2020s. The honest story is bigger than one hit: centuries of musical association met a modern appetite for long, vowel-rich classics. Cece makes it playful, but the full name still sounds as if music belongs inside it.
Cecilia in song
Cecilia
Simon and Garfunkel (1970)
Built on a stomping rhythm the group taped one night at a rented house and then looped, an exasperated little love song to a woman who will not sit still.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Cecilia peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
Popularity in Brazil
171,217 people · the #194 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,186 · median age 10
Among people named Cecilia living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 45,522 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Cecilia deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Cecilia 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 Cecilia fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Cecilia travels
Mexican American · traditionally linked to blindness (Spanish form of Latin Caecilia); also patron saint of music
Vietnamese American · blind (a common Vietnamese Catholic baptismal name honoring Saint Cecilia)
Keep exploring
Names like Cecilia · Nicknames for Cecilia · Middle names for Cecilia · Vietnamese American baby names · Mexican American baby names · Cantonese and Hong Kong baby names
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