Cecil
Cecil is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 122 births. Its best rank was 65th, in 1902.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1220.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19202,459 births
- Best rank
- #65in 1902
- Since 1880
- 114,554people given the name
The story in the numbers
106,867 boys have been named Cecil in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1920, with 2,459 births — 0.23% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 122 births in 2024, against 2,459 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1935, and the 1920s alone account for 21%. It has spent 118 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 35 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 7,687 girls have also been given it, 6.7% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Cecil | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 705 | |
| 1890s | 1,808 | |
| 1900s | 3,610 | |
| 1910s | 15,987 | |
| 1920s | 22,528 | |
| 1930s | 16,482 | |
| 1940s | 14,837 | |
| 1950s | 12,004 | |
| 1960s | 7,429 | |
| 1970s | 4,181 | |
| 1980s | 2,930 | |
| 1990s | 1,700 | |
| 2000s | 1,094 | |
| 2010s | 1,010 | |
| 2020s | 562 |
In 1920, its biggest year
Cecil was the 77th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1920 were John, William, Robert, James and Charles. See all of 1920.
Names that rose and fell with Cecil
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Lesterpeak 1918
- Virgilpeak 1921
- Hubertpeak 1924
- Aciepeak 1928
- Loydpeak 1926
- Ottispeak 1920
- Johnniepeak 1928
- Basilpeak 1924
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.