{"id":14910,"date":"2020-08-27T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T17:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14910"},"modified":"2020-08-27T13:51:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T17:51:53","slug":"baby-naming-issue-is-cy-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2020\/08\/27\/baby-naming-issue-is-cy-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: Is Cy a Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

We’re getting down to the wire with my second child, who is due in a month. If it’s a girl, she will be June. If it’s a boy, we had settled on Calvin (and he would go by Cal). I can’t remember who threw this wrench in the wheel, but either my husband or I remembered the name Cy.<\/p>\n

We both love it. The only thing I can’t figure out is: is Cy an actual name? I looked up Cy Young and Cy Twombly, neither of whom were actually named Cy or anything like it.<\/p>\n

We don’t want to use Cyrus. We like Cy, as is. Is it a name? Will having a 2-letter name cause problems on forms? We would really appreciate your\/your readers help!<\/p>\n

Thank you so much,
\nMarie<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let’s see what the Social Security Administration<\/a> says. Their 2019 baby name data has been postponed (ostensibly because of the pandemic but now it’s getting weird), but we have 2018 and earlier. In 2018, the name Cy was given to 65 new baby boys. I went back five years just to check in: 99 new baby boys named Cy in 2013. Well, let’s go back FIFTY years: 18 new baby boys named Cy in 1968. One hundred years: 11 new baby boys named Cy in 1918.<\/p>\n

So it hasn’t been in hearty usage, but it’s been around long enough that I think we can safely say that yes, it is used as a name in the United States. And it doesn’t seem as if a two-letter name would be a problem on forms, though perhaps people with two-letter-name experience\u00a0 (Ty, Jo, Bo) could weigh in on this.<\/p>\n

Because it sounds like the word “sigh,” I would double-check any final name choice for unintentional wordplay. I would also double-check for sound combinations with the surname: Cy + K___ (or hard C) sounding like sike\/psych, Cy + Ber____\/Bur____ bringing cyber to mind, and so on.<\/p>\n

One more possibility to consider: you mention you don’t like Cyrus, but do you like Simon or Silas, with the nickname Si\/Sy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! We’re getting down to the wire with my second child, who is due in a month. If it’s a girl, she will be June. If it’s a boy, we had settled on Calvin (and he would go by Cal). I can’t remember who threw this wrench in the wheel, but either my husband […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3Su","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14914,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14910\/revisions\/14914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}