Cecylia
Given to more newborn girls last year than in years past, it's mid comeback after a quieter stretch. The name carries the old sense "blind", and today it rings familiar without turning up everywhere.
Cecylia Pronunciation
Cecylia is pronounced tse-TSIHL-yah (/t͡sɛˈt͡sɨlja/).
What Cecylia means
Where Cecylia comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Cecylia reaches back to a Latin family name, Caecilius, and to the Latin word caecus, meaning blind. The Polish forms keep that root close, and the meaning given for the name is simply ślepa, niewidoma, blind. That sense sits oddly beside the name's most famous bearer, since Saint Cecilia became the patron of music, and her feast falls on 22 November, the day Poles named Cecylia mark their imieniny.
In everyday speech the name softens. Cecilia stands as the older variant, closer to the Latin. Among family and friends a Cecylia becomes Cesia, or shorter still, Cela.
Look for her in a school register and the full Cecylia will be written in the margin, while everyone in the room says Cela. The name has held the sense of blindness for a long time, yet in Polish ears it rings first with music, with the saint at her organ. Blind in root, ślepa and niewidoma, it still answers to Cesia.
How many people are named Cecylia
1 in 890 women in Poland is named Cecylia. 25,332 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #253 among female names.
Cecylia's popularity over time
59 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #321 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000. Still the #253 name among living women, even as it slips to #321 among newborns.
Where Cecylia is most popular
Cecylia is most popular in Greater Poland, 63% above the national average (45 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+60%) and Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+42%). It is least common in Subcarpathian and Podlaskie, 87% and 76% below average respectively.
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Greater Poland45 girls born+63%
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Masovian73 girls born+60%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian20 girls born+42%
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Pomeranian25 girls born+32%
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Silesian28 girls born−4%
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Lesser Poland27 girls born−8%
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West Pomeranian10 girls born−8%
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Łódź13 girls born−20%
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Lower Silesian16 girls born−21%
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Świętokrzyskie4 girls born−44%
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Opole3 girls born−49%
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Warmian-Masurian4 girls born−57%
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Lubusz2 girls born−69%
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Lublin4 girls born−70%
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Podlaskie2 girls born−76%
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Subcarpathian2 girls born−87%
Cecylia as a middle name
Cecylia is a first name for 25,332 women in Poland and a middle name for another 25,726, a 50/50 split — almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 74th, between Sabina (25,797) and Daria (24,957).
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72
26,134Mirosława
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73
25,797Sabina
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7425,726Cecylia
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75
24,957Daria
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76
24,728Henryka
When Cecylia celebrates name day
Cecylia appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 22 November.