Cecilia

Cecilia, which is the name of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, has been a consistently used name in the United States, where it has ranked among the top 500 names for girls for more than 100 years. It was the 274th most popular name for American girls born in 2007. It was the 317th most popular given name for women and girls in the United States census of 1990. It also ranked among the top 100 names for girls born in Sweden in the early years of the 21st century.

Feminine variant forms

Cecilia (band)

Cecilia was a pop-rock band based in New York. The band was from the Washington, D.C. area, then later moved to Astoria, Queens. While not a religious group, the band chose the name Cecilia from Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music and of the blind.

History

The band was formed by the members of the Veltz family, then living in Vienna, Virginia in 1998 when the three Veltz youngsters, Allison, Drew and Laura, began performing songs written by their father, Kenneth Veltz, at local venues. The group was originally an acoustic trio, playing local open mic gigs with Drew playing guitar for his sisters. When the family's financials were in a downturn, the band became the family business and Kenneth and mother Jeannie joined their children on drums and vocals, respectively. The group moved to New York in 2000. That same year they recorded Live at Zig's at two live performances in August, which was released in 2001. After a string of temporary bassists, Cecilia added Kevin Jacoby in late 2000. Cecilia was in negotiations to join Blackbird Records an affiliate of Atlantic Records just before the merger of AOL and Time Warner, which ended Blackbird's affiliation with Atlantic. This led to Cecilia being signed by Atlantic Records in early 2001.

Cecilia (Spanish singer)

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Evangelina Sobredo Galanes, known as Cecilia, (October 11, 1948 – August 2, 1976) was a Spanish singer-songwriter. She took her stage name from the song "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel.

Biography

The daughter of diplomats, she was born in Madrid, spent her childhood in several countries (Spain, The United Kingdom, The United States, Jordan, Portugal) and was raised by an American nun. She attained a bachelor's degree in law in Spain before deciding to dedicate herself to music and composition. Her ironic and lyrical songs, sung in a tiny voice, contributed to the existentialist and feminist movements of Spanish canción protesta (protest songs) of the 1960s and 1970s.

Career

Her first steps in the music field were with the group Expresión, featuring Nacho Saez de Tejada and Julio Seijas. She wrote and sang in English. This band only published a single in 1970. In 1971 she signed up a contract as a solo artist with CBS-Spain. Julio Seijas remained as a collaborative musician on Cecilia´s band. She tried to launch her career as 'Eva' but that name was already registered and in use by another Madrilenian artist. In those days, the CBS-Spain label had release Simon and Garfunkel´s hit "Cecilia" and Evangelina took on that stage name.