Cicily is a form of Cecily, from the Roman name Caecilia, traditionally interpreted as "blind."
Cicily is an English variant spelling of Cecily (itself the medieval English form of Cecilia), which traces back to the ancient Roman family name Caecilius — almost certainly derived from the Latin "caecus," meaning blind. The Caecilii were a prominent plebeian gens in Rome, and their name quietly persisted through centuries of change until it was transformed by one of the most venerated saints in Christendom. Saint Cecilia, a Roman martyr of the second or third century, became the patron saint of music, her name forever intertwined with melody and spiritual devotion.
In medieval England, Cecily and Cicely were fashionable names among the aristocracy. Cecily Neville, Duchess of York in the fifteenth century — mother of two English kings — was one of the most politically formidable women of her age, known as the "Rose of Raby." The name's nobly worn pedigree gave it enduring presence in English literature and drama; Shakespeare's contemporary Ben Jonson used variants of the name, and Oscar Wilde famously placed a Cecily at the center of "The Importance of Being Earnest" — young, witty, and secretly romantic.
The Cicily spelling is the more unconventional of the variants, giving the classic name a slightly idiosyncratic visual texture that appeals to parents who want historical depth without strict conventionality. After decades of resting in the background, Cecily-family names have seen a gentle revival in the twenty-first century, prized for their combination of medieval gravitas and melodic softness.