Given name
Cressida
“gold”
Cressida has a layered literary history that runs through medieval retellings of the Trojan story.
Original Ancient GreekΧρυσηΐς
Meaning & origin
What it means
Cressida goes back to Ancient Greek χρυσός, meaning “gold.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Greek.
How it developed
In English usage, Cressida developed from Χρυσηΐς.
The story
Shakespeare’s Cressida follows Chaucer’s Criseyde and Boccaccio’s Criseida. The story of her love for Troilus and later relationship with Diomedes developed in medieval literature, although the name ultimately connects with a Greek name found in the Iliad.
Cressida through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 162
- 0 boys · 162 girls
- Most popular year
- 2025
- 11 babies
- 2025
- 11
- #8,987 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −24%
- Easing
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 11 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 8,987 among girls’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 232 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cressida’s family of names
Cressida has a short form in Cressa. In English usage, Cressida developed from the Ancient Greek form Χρυσηΐς. Cressida has a related form in Cressyda.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Cressida
- Cressida CowellBritish writerborn 1966
- Cressida DickBritish police officerborn 1960
- Cressida BonasEnglish actress, dancer and modelborn 1989
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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