Cain
Cain was given to 185 boys in 2025, #1,142 among boys’ names; 7,628 Americans have been recorded with it since 1910 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,340 Americans named Cain and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 8 and 25.
Cain dropped 162 places in 2025, the #19 drop among the boys’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cain by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cain mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cain is “a male given name from Hebrew.” Its etymology gives the sense “craftsman” (קַיִן).
From Hebrew קַיִן (Káyin, “craftsman”), present since Old English.
/keɪn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cain?
#1,142 among boys’ names, 2025
Cain fell from #743 in 2015 to #1,142 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.17 to 0.11 per 1,000.
330 babies in 2014, the peak
Cain peaked in 2014, when 330 boys were given it, #727 among boys’ names. The 185 births of 2025 are 56% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 185 | #1,142 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 230 | #980 | 0.13 |
| 2023 | 250 | #922 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 253 | #914 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 235 | #956 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 254 | #893 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 285 | #806 | 0.16 |
| 2018 | 251 | #871 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 262 | #845 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 324 | #751 | 0.17 |
Every recorded year (89)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 326 | #743 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 330 | #727 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 285 | #792 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 290 | #783 | 0.15 |
| 2011 | 254 | #845 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 207 | #958 | 0.11 |
| 2009 | 200 | #988 | 0.10 |
| 2008 | 189 | #1,014 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 141 | #1,248 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 135 | #1,239 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 139 | #1,150 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 126 | #1,205 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 127 | #1,175 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 150 | #1,021 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 137 | #1,054 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 137 | #1,046 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 136 | #1,017 | 0.07 |
| 1998 | 128 | #1,049 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 141 | #949 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 133 | #960 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 113 | #1,050 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 146 | #899 | 0.08 |
| 1993 | 99 | #1,128 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 64 | #1,429 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 45 | #1,767 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 41 | #1,870 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 39 | #1,893 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 41 | #1,708 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 30 | #2,020 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 43 | #1,539 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 35 | #1,730 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 31 | #1,802 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 32 | #1,752 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 46 | #1,395 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 50 | #1,311 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 33 | #1,737 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 27 | #1,948 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 19 | #2,386 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 26 | #1,914 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 30 | #1,715 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 27 | #1,794 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 42 | #1,313 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 35 | #1,438 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 17 | #2,256 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 17 | #2,292 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 17 | #2,222 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 9 | #3,088 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 11 | #2,593 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #3,604 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 11 | #2,484 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #3,984 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 9 | #2,882 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 9 | #2,872 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,692 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #3,374 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,583 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #3,550 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 9 | #2,766 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #3,871 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #3,784 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 7 | #3,063 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 8 | #2,809 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 7 | #2,994 | under 0.01 |
| 1939 | 8 | #2,637 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 7 | #2,903 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 8 | #2,705 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 6 | #3,328 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 6 | #3,321 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 9 | #2,795 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,234 | under 0.01 |
| 1926 | 9 | #2,937 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 6 | #3,797 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 6 | #3,919 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 6 | #3,930 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 10 | #2,798 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,148 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 8 | #3,143 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,456 | 0.01 |
| 1910 | 9 | #1,127 | 0.05 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cain a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cain has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 89 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cain: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cain, and how old are they?
7,340 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 7,628 Americans ever recorded as Cain. The median Cain alive today is 14 years old; half are between 8 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 5,794 people named Cain (56 women and girls, 5,738 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,061 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 9 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 52 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 297 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 944 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,440 |
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 Cain born?
The states with the most babies named Cain are California, Texas and Ohio, with 48% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 27 | #865 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 23 | #1,018 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 12 | #717 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,271 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 9 | #780 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,008 | 0.6× |
| Louisiana | 7 | #597 | 1.7× |
| Indiana | 7 | #783 | 1.0× |
| New York | 6 | #1,602 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,165 | 0.5× |
Where Cain is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cain is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1910 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 boys’ 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 Cain with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 17,793 babies since 1880, Cain is the most given (43% of them). In 2025 it was given to 185 of their 445 babies (42%), again the most given.
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 Cain
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 Cain and names like it
- Compare Cain and KainBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sCain peaked in 2014.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cain since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Cain: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Cain.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Cain alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.