Cassidi

Meaning & origin

Cassidi is a modern variant spelling of Cassidy, an Irish surname turned given name. It first appeared in U.S. birth records in 1977 and saw its peak popularity in 1999, when it ranked 1,548th. Since then, its use has steadily declined, reflecting a broader trend away from -ee ending names after the 1990s. The variant spelling with an 'i' instead of a 'y' was part of a wave of creative respellings popular in the late 20th century. While never among the top 1,000 names, Cassidi saw modest use in several states during the 1990s. Its Irish roots connect it to a rich tradition of surname-turned-first names, and it remains a distinctive alternative to the more common Cassidy.

Cassidi is a modern respelling of Cassidy, which derives from the Irish Gaelic surname Ó Caiside, meaning 'descendant of Caiside'. The personal name Caiside is thought to mean 'curly-haired' or 'clever'. Cassidy has been used as a given name since the 20th century, and its variant spellings like Cassidi and Kassidy emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.