Cecil
About Cecil
Once a powerful Roman clan name, Cecil has lost much of its potency over the years, though it retains a strong presence in the sports and jazz worlds. Past bearers include film giant Cecil B. DeMille, poet Cecil Day Lewis, father of Daniel, and photographer Cecil Beaton. Fictional Cecils appear in Oscar Wilde's play, Lady Windemere's Fan, E. M. Foster's A Room With a View and the film Lee Daniel's The Butler.
As of October 2026, Cecil ranked #1486 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #65 in 1902, Nameberry popularity #435.
Editor's take: The name Cecil is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "blind".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #1,590 | 99 | 51.5 |
| 2015 | #1,468 | 114 | 59.5 |
| 2016 | #1,587 | 103 | 54.3 |
| 2017 | #1,576 | 103 | 55.6 |
| 2018 | #1,511 | 113 | 62.2 |
| 2019 | #1,653 | 98 | 54.6 |
| 2020 | #1,647 | 97 | 56.2 |
| 2021 | #1,538 | 114 | 65.2 |
| 2022 | #1,558 | 114 | 65.3 |
| 2023 | #1,528 | 115 | 67.2 |
| 2024 | #1,479 | 122 | 70.8 |
| 2025 | #1,486 | 119 | 69.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
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Famous Cecils
- Cecil Blount DeMille
American film director
- Cecil Grant Fielder
American baseball player
- Cecil Adams
pen name of the author of The Straight Dope column
- Cecil Baldwin
American voice actor
- Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton
British photographer
- Cecil "Cecilius" Calvert
founder of Maryland, USA
- Cecil Day
Lewis, British poet
- Cecil Dowdy
American football player
- Cecil Newton
American football player
- Cecil John Rhodes
British entrepreneur and politician
- Cecil Carlon Shorts
American football player
Cecil in pop culture
- Cecil Gershwin Palmer
gay radio host and main character of "Welcome To Night Vale"
- Cecil Dynever
character in "Lionel Lincoln"
- Cecil Gaines
character in "The Butler"
- Cecil Harvey
character in "Final Fantasy IV"
- Cecil Jacobs
character in "To Kill A Mockingbird"
- Lord Cecil Psnake
character in "Freddy and Fredericka"
- Cecil Terwilliger
brother of Sideshow Bob on "The Simpsons"
- Cecil Vyse
character in "A Room with a View"
- "Cecil Dreeme" (1862)
"interesting early transvestite novel" by Theodore Winthrop, in which Clara Denman dresses up as male painter amongst New York artists under the name of Cecil Dreeme in order to escape marriage to the evil Dendreth
- Cecil
Zimbabwean lion killed in 2015
Variations & nicknames
- CecilioItalian