Cecilia

Cecilia comes from the Latin Caecilía which is the feminine form of the Old Roman family name Caecilius. Caecilius comes from the Latin word “caecus” which means ‘blind’ and developed as a byname for a Roman plebeian family who dated back to the 5th century B.C. The Plebs were free landowning Roman citizens and fell somewhere between the slaves and the elite Patricians. The family traced their ancestry to a Roman mythological figure, Caeculus (‘little blind boy’), who was a son of Vulcan, god of fire. Legend has it that Caeculus was born of Vulcan’s spark, found on a hearth and raised among shepherds. The boy showed mastery over fire, but the smoke did damage his eyes which remained smaller than normal (hence his moniker: little blind one). Caeculus is also credited as the founder of Praeneste, an ancient city east of Rome. An alternative tradition claimed that the Caecilii were descended from Caecas, who had accompanied Aeneas to Italy after the Greeks sacked Troy. By the 3rd century B.C., a member of the Caecilius family obtained consulship, the highest elected office in the Roman Republic. The name Cecilia was mainly popularized during the middle ages, in homage to the 2nd century Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia). Cecilia refused to worship the Roman gods during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and so was martyred after being tortured, suffocated and finally beheaded. She is the patron saint of music and musicians because as she lay dying she was said to be singing to God. As with many early saints, Cecilia became quite legendary in the Middle Ages and so her name was bestowed upon children. The French brought Cécile to England via the Norman Conquest of 1066. The English commonly spelled the name Cecily until the 18th century when the Latinate Cecilia came into favor.