Entry № 1820 · Latin origin

Cecilia Cecilia — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ seh-SEEL-yah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Latin
Meaning
"Blind"
Syllables
4
First recorded
Ancient (Latin)

A name that means "blind".

Cecilia comes from the Roman family name Caecilius, derived from the Latin caecus, meaning "blind." The name had Christian resonance through Saint Cecilia (2nd-3rd century), patron saint of music — to whom Pope Gregory dedicated November 22 as a feast day, and many composers including Britten, Purcell, and Handel wrote Cecilian odes.

Cecilia has been continuously used since the medieval period. Today Cecilia sits in the U.S. top 200.

Blind. The patron saint of music.

The name in its native script.

Cecilia
Transliteration
Cecilia
Pronunciation
/ səˈsiː.li.ə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Cecilia stands.

Cecilia does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Cecilias before her.

Real people
Saint Cecilia
Patron saint of music.
2nd–3rd c.
Cecilia Bartoli
Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano.
born 1966
In fiction
Cecilia Tallis
Character in Ian McEwan's Atonement.
2001 novel

Names connected to Cecilia.

The number behind Cecilia.

6

The Nurturer

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Cecilia reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.