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Boy · Ancient Greek
Cyril
Say it: SIR-ul
Meaning
Greek Kyrillos, from kyrios 'lord'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Very common in Russia as Kirill and used in England from the late 19th century.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1910s
In the United States
- 11,916 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1916, about 1 in 2,700 boys
- 39 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianGreekRussianBulgarianSerbianEnglishFrenchCzech
The family of the name
Other spellings: Cyrill
| French | Cyrille |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Cirilo |
| Italian | Cirillo |
| Portuguese | Cirilo |
| German | Kyrill |
| Polish | Cyryl |
| Russian | Kirill |
| Bulgarian | Kiril |
Famous bearers
- Cyril of Alexandria, theologian
- Cyril, apostle to the Slavs, for whom the Cyrillic alphabet is named
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- Medieval Slavic chronicles and charters
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.