Humanverse

Cicely vs Cicero

American parents have registered 2,391 Cicelys since 1880, against 1,453 Ciceros. Cicely is still ahead, with 13 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cicely against Cicero, 1880 to 2025 0 80 160 240 320 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cicely Cicero

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 144 years in which either name was published, Cicero for 86 years and Cicely for 58 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Cicely Cicero
Total US births 2,3911,453
Most in one year 25641
Babies in 2025 135
Estimated living today 2,200310
Median age today 4565
Peak year 19741920
Best rank 608th girls1,108th boys
Rank in 2025 7,885th12,008th
First recorded 19171880
Girls / boys 2,391 / 00 / 1,453

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Ciceros alive today are over 65; half the Cicelys are over 45. That is 20 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Cicely and Cicero.