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I adore Cecil! However, I think it's completely masculine.

To me Cecil is a boys name and I like it very much. You can make it feminine pretty easy though: How about Cecile or Cécile? I think those are very elegant.

I just checked the birth data for the UK and there were quite a lot of female Cecils before 1900. Apparently it got to #240 in the US in 1897, too. I don't think it would be too bad as a fun short form for Cecilia.

Was it intended as a version of Cécile, perhaps? Or perhaps a short form of Cecilia? I've never heard of a female Cecil, and I'm not fond of it as Cecil is definitely masculine in my mind. Plus, there are so many obviously feminine forms out there... no need to convert yet another masculine name to feminine, in my opinion.

I've never heard of Cecil on a girl before. I confess I'm pretty rigid on gender-bending names. And when adorable, bouncy Cecily is available I don't understand why parents need to use Cecil on a girl.

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But the fact that is was your great-grandmother's name is definitely an important factor for you. So I can understand you wanting to use it. I would think it would be easier for your children to live with if you used Cecilia / Cecily for a girl and kept Cecil for a boy. But anything goes now so who's to say?

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Just out of curiosity, do you know how your gret-grandmother pronounced it? "SEE-sil" or "SESS-il?" And was she in the U.K., Canada, U.S., other? You don't have to answer that. I'm just nosey that way.