Cainan
Cainan was given to 32 boys in 2025, #3,525 among boys’ names; 1,024 Americans have been recorded with it since 1981 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,010 Americans named Cainan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cainan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cainan?
#3,525 among boys’ names, 2025
Cainan fell from #3,032 in 2015 to #3,525 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 19.8 to 18.7 per million.
47 babies in 2016, the peak
Cainan peaked in 2016, when 47 boys were given it, #2,631 among boys’ names. The 32 births of 2025 are 68% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 32 | #3,525 | 18.7 |
| 2024 | 36 | #3,278 | 20.9 |
| 2023 | 28 | #3,901 | 16.4 |
| 2022 | 37 | #3,219 | 21.2 |
| 2021 | 24 | #4,258 | 13.7 |
| 2020 | 27 | #3,830 | 15.6 |
| 2019 | 44 | #2,814 | 24.5 |
| 2018 | 34 | #3,305 | 18.7 |
| 2017 | 41 | #2,902 | 22.2 |
| 2016 | 47 | #2,631 | 24.8 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 38 | #3,032 | 19.8 |
| 2014 | 23 | #4,277 | 12.0 |
| 2013 | 21 | #4,492 | 11.1 |
| 2012 | 32 | #3,379 | 16.9 |
| 2011 | 24 | #4,123 | 12.6 |
| 2010 | 34 | #3,251 | 17.7 |
| 2009 | 38 | #3,056 | 19.2 |
| 2008 | 28 | #3,749 | 13.7 |
| 2007 | 40 | #2,925 | 19.3 |
| 2006 | 40 | #2,841 | 19.5 |
| 2005 | 22 | #4,067 | 11.0 |
| 2004 | 39 | #2,699 | 19.6 |
| 2003 | 34 | #2,851 | 17.2 |
| 2002 | 23 | #3,679 | 11.8 |
| 2001 | 21 | #3,856 | 10.8 |
| 2000 | 24 | #3,430 | 12.2 |
| 1999 | 27 | #3,038 | 14.1 |
| 1998 | 21 | #3,501 | 11.0 |
| 1997 | 24 | #3,073 | 12.7 |
| 1996 | 11 | #5,223 | 5.8 |
| 1995 | 12 | #4,826 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,056 | 3.6 |
| 1993 | 11 | #5,042 | 5.6 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,533 | 3.0 |
| 1991 | 11 | #4,793 | 5.4 |
| 1990 | 11 | #4,697 | 5.4 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,061 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,523 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,547 | 3.7 |
| 1985 | 6 | #5,885 | 3.2 |
| 1984 | 7 | #5,036 | 3.9 |
| 1983 | 11 | #3,650 | 6.1 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,189 | 5.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cainan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cainan has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cainan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cainan, and how old are they?
1,010 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,024 Americans ever recorded as Cainan. The median Cainan alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 748 people named Cainan (9 women and girls, 739 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 836 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 115 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 464 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 429 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 32,860 babies since 1880, Cainan is the seventh most given (3.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 32 of their 1,142 babies (2.8%), again the seventh 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 Cainan
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 Cainan and names like it
- Compare Cainan and CannonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sCainan peaked in 2016.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cainan since 1910.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Cainan.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cainan alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.