Cecile

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Cecilia in US United States, BR Brazil, SE Sweden and 16 more, Cecilie in NO Norway and Cecília in PT Portugal.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 25 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Cecile is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name174K records spelled Cecile17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Cécile, Cècile, Cecilé, Cėcile

• a separate given name8.3K records spelled Cecile4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland

  Also written Cécile, Cécilé, Cècile

• French (Côte d’Ivoire) given name6.2K records spelled Cecile2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Côte d’Ivoire

  Also written Cécile

• Swahili given name1.8K records spelled Cecile3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Angola, Philippines, South Africa

  Languages: Swahili, Kinyarwanda

  Also written Cécile

• Polish given name1.1K records spelled Cecile4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, United States, Czechia, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

  Also written Cécile

70 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Cecile is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In fro, a female given name from Latin, equivalent to English Cecilia or Cecile

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Cecily of Yorkb. 1469GBnot in their usual nameEnglish princess
• Cécile Chaminadeb. 1857FRFrench composer and pianist (1857-1944)
• Pauline Réageb. 1907FRnot in their usual nameFrench journalist and novelist best known for her erotic novel Story of O
• Cécile Aubryb. 1928FRFrench actress, television director, writer and screenwriter (1928–2010)
• Adrienne Richb. 1929USnot in their usual nameAmerican poet, essayist and feminist (1929–2012)
• Cécile La Grenadeb. 1952GDGovernor-General of Grenada
• Zabou Breitmanb. 1959FRnot in their usual nameFrench actress and film director
• Cécile Kyengeb. 1964ITItalian politician and ophthalmologist
• Cécile de Franceb. 1975BEBelgian actress
• Cécile Casselb. 1982FRFrench actress and singer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 410 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Cecile?

We estimate roughly 605 thousand people bear Cecile (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Cecile have the most bearers?

We estimate about 178 thousand people bear Cecile in France, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled cecile.

Where is Cecile most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Cecile is densest in Sweden — about 1 in 155 people — even though France holds more of our records for it.

How common is Cecile compared with other names?

In France, Cecile is the 81st most common given name of 711,207 given names recorded there.

Is Cecile a male or female name?

Cecile is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Cecile mean?

Recorded meaning: Canadian French