Popularized as a literary fantasy name and likely inspired by Circe, the enchantress of Greek myth.
Cersei is a name born almost entirely of fiction, yet it carries within it the echo of one of mythology's most powerful women. R. Martin coined it for the formidable queen in his epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" (1996), and the name is widely understood as a deliberate reworking of Circe—the enchantress of Homer's Odyssey who transformed men into swine and held Odysseus captive on her island of Aeaea.
Circe herself derives from the Greek word "kirkos," meaning circle or hawk, a creature associated with far-seeing and predatory intelligence. Martin's Cersei Lannister—brought to global fame by HBO's "Game of Thrones" (2011–2019)—became one of the most analyzed female characters in modern popular culture: a woman wielding power inside a system designed to deny it to her, by turns ruthless, loving, and tragic. The name consequently carries enormous narrative weight, evoking ambition, maternal ferocity, and the corrupting costs of survival.
Parents who choose Cersei today are making a knowing, boldly literary statement. Usage spiked after the television series premiered and has since settled into a niche category of names given consciously as homage to fictional antiheroes. For those unbothered by the character's darker acts, the name offers an undeniably striking sound—three syllables with a soft sibilant opening—and a lineage that stretches from ancient Greek myth through twenty-first-century prestige television.