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Cy vs Cypress

American parents have registered 3,921 Cys since 1880, against 2,237 Cypresses. But in 2025 it was Cypress that was commoner, 184 babies to 52.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cy against Cypress, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cy Cypress

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 112 years in which either name was published, Cy for 101 years and Cypress for 11 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Cy Cypress
Total US births 3,9212,237
Most in one year 117207
Babies in 2025 52184
Estimated living today 3,5002,200
Median age today 216
Peak year 20102024
Best rank 1,415th boys1,410th boys
Rank in 2025 2,539th1,554th
First recorded 19021978
Girls / boys 23 / 3,8981,046 / 1,191

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 Cys alive today are over 21; half the Cypresses are over 6. That is 15 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: Cy and Cypress.