"Cecaelia" isn't a word and you should stop using it

Pathfinder labels the octopus mermaid as a "cecaelia." This isn't a real word, so you can be forgiven for thinking Paizo made it up. In fact, it originates from a wikipedia article posted in 2008 which has since been deleted for being a meaningless neologism. In all likelihood, "cecaelia" is a misspelling of the feminine given name Cecilia or the amphibian order of Caecilians. Both words are derived from the Latin word for "blind" and have nothing to do with octopuses, mermaids, or octopus mermaids. UPDATED 12/4/2018 8/17/2023

Because lots of people read wikipedia and assume it is correct without doing their own fact-checking, and because spambots duplicate wikipedia content across the internet, this word has spread far and wide. Even so it remains obscure and impossible to remember how to spell or pronounce since it was never written or spoken in real life.

Octopus mermaids are called by other names, such as the abbreviation "octo-maid."

• By comparison with Ursula in Disney's adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, octopus mermaids are sometimes called "sea witches." (Though I think sea witch makes more sense as a character class than a specific race.)
• By comparison with the monster Scylla in Greek mythology, octopus mermaids are sometimes called "scylla" (plural scyllae).
• An issue of Vampirella magazine gave us "cilophyte", possibly derived from cilio- (from cilium, meaning a bundle of fine hairs), Scylla (the sea monster from Greek myth) or chilo- ("thousand") plus -phyte ("growth").
• A series of Magic: The Gathering cards gave us "cephalid," derived from cephalopod.
• As a joke, one could call octopus mermaids "Cecilia" after the female given name and squid mermaids "Drusilla."

All of these names are vastly superior to "cecaelia" because they are real words or neologisms with real meanings that actually relate to what they name rather than a string of random sounds some troll thought up one day and posted to Wikipedia.