Cailin
Cailin was given to 7 girls in 2025, #12,149 among girls’ names; 3,743 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,690 Americans named Cailin and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 18 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cailin by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cailin?
#12,149 among girls’ names, 2025
Cailin fell from #3,262 in 2015 to #12,149 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 28.0 to 4.4 per million.
169 babies in 1998, the peak
Cailin peaked in 1998, when 169 babies were given it (162 girls, #1,159 among girls’ names). The 7 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,149 | 4.4 |
| 2024 | 14 | #7,659 | 8.6 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,092 | 6.9 |
| 2022 | 26 | #5,044 | 15.9 |
| 2021 | 20 | #5,988 | 12.2 |
| 2020 | 42 | #3,557 | 26.0 |
| 2019 | 29 | #4,674 | 17.3 |
| 2018 | 33 | #4,250 | 19.4 |
| 2017 | 29 | #4,716 | 16.8 |
| 2016 | 24 | #5,485 | 13.5 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 50 | #3,262 | 28.0 |
| 2014 | 60 | #2,847 | 33.6 |
| 2013 | 65 | #2,685 | 37.0 |
| 2012 | 81 | #2,317 | 46.0 |
| 2011 | 100 | #1,971 | 56.8 |
| 2010 | 133 | #1,623 | 74.8 |
| 2009 | 115 | #1,849 | 62.6 |
| 2008 | 137 | #1,645 | 72.5 |
| 2007 | 137 | #1,623 | 71.3 |
| 2006 | 132 | #1,617 | 69.4 |
| 2005 | 144 | #1,467 | 77.9 |
| 2004 | 147 | #1,415 | 80.1 |
| 2003 | 164 | #1,273 | 89.8 |
| 2002 | 153 | #1,283 | 85.1 |
| 2001 | 146 | #1,314 | 81.1 |
| 2000 | 150 | #1,286 | 82.6 |
| 1999 | 131 | #1,350 | 73.9 |
| 1998 | 162 | #1,159 | 91.7 |
| 1997 | 143 | #1,243 | 82.2 |
| 1996 | 123 | #1,367 | 70.2 |
| 1995 | 127 | #1,304 | 72.2 |
| 1994 | 129 | #1,312 | 72.2 |
| 1993 | 75 | #1,880 | 41.5 |
| 1992 | 56 | #2,316 | 30.4 |
| 1991 | 62 | #2,130 | 33.1 |
| 1990 | 71 | #1,936 | 37.4 |
| 1989 | 59 | #2,091 | 32.0 |
| 1988 | 59 | #2,010 | 33.1 |
| 1987 | 64 | #1,813 | 36.8 |
| 1986 | 40 | #2,473 | 23.3 |
| 1985 | 39 | #2,487 | 22.7 |
| 1984 | 47 | #2,117 | 27.9 |
| 1983 | 44 | #2,203 | 26.3 |
| 1982 | 35 | #2,648 | 20.7 |
| 1981 | 17 | #4,365 | 10.2 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,009 | 11.4 |
| 1979 | 11 | #5,795 | 6.9 |
| 1978 | 12 | #5,249 | 7.8 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,640 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 8 | #6,689 | 5.5 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,022 | 6.2 |
| 1973 | 6 | #7,528 | 4.1 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,816 | 5.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cailin a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cailin has been given almost only to girls: 30 boys in 53 years of records.
Girls and boys named Cailin: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cailin, and how old are they?
3,690 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,743 Americans ever recorded as Cailin. The median Cailin alive today is 24 years old; half are between 18 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 3,587 people named Cailin (3,493 women and girls, 94 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,590 born in the U.S. The Census count matches that prediction to within 1%.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 77 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,030 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,170 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 407 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Cailin born?
The states with the most babies named Cailin are California, New York and Pennsylvania, with 43% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 412 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New York | 232 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 159 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Massachusetts | 142 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Texas | 125 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 120 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 94 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Florida | 92 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 86 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 76 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Cailin is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cailin is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1968 it was given 1.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Cailin with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Cailin?
Cailin is a less common spelling of Kaylin: SSA has recorded 3,743 Cailin and 19,934 Kaylin since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 53,639 babies since 1880, Cailin is the fourth most given (7.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 361 babies (1.9%), the eighth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cailin
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cailin and names like it
- Compare Cailin and KaylinBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sCailin peaked in 1998.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cailin since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Cailin.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cailin alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.