Cecilia

I read somewhere that Cecilia actually refers to someone who helps the blind.

Looking at Latin and Italian dictionaries, it seems the meaning of “caecus” is much more nuanced than this entry would have us believe. The meanings include “obscure”, “dark”, “invisible”, “concealed”, “hidden,”, “secret“, “unknowable”, “mysterious”.

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Cecilia is a beautiful name and even more beautiful once the full depth of meaning is understood.

The meaning is sort of disappointing, but Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of the blind. That's all that is.

I was named Cecilia and I grew up absolutely hating the name for 3 reasons. 1.) it means "blind"; 2.) the Simon and Garfunkel song which insinuated Cecilia was rather promiscuous; 3.) it was unusual and I didn't want an unusual name. I am of half Swedish descent and it wasn't until my junior year in high school did I start to relax a little about the name. This was because a sweet and pretty Swedish exchange student named Cecilia, spelled the same way as my name, came to our school for a year. We became fast friends and I felt less different. Apparently it's more common in Scandinavia. Nonetheless I started to go by "Celia", which means "heavenly", in college and it has stayed that way. I even had it legally changed to Celia. Inevitably people I meet sometimes call me Cecilia, although these days I don't rush to correct them as I have in the past. It must be middle age, LOL! I do like the sound of both names so I don't care as much anymore.

In Latin, this name means "blinded" lol.

I've read on many other websites that Cecilia does not mean "blind", it means "leader of the blind". José Saramago, author of the Nobel Prize winning novel "Blindness" almost named the main character Cecilia, because she is the only person who can see after a city is struck by an epidemic of blindness. He later decided to not give the characters names, and called the main character The Doctor's Wife instead. Julianne Moore will play her in the upcoming movie.