Caitlyn
Caitlyn was given to 71 girls in 2025, #2,492 among girls’ names; 52,637 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 51,800 Americans named Caitlyn and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 21 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Caitlyn by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Caitlyn mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Caitlyn is “a female given name from Irish, one of the modern spelling variants of Caitlin.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Caitlyn?
#2,492 among girls’ names, 2025
Caitlyn fell from #598 in 2015 to #2,492 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.28 to 0.04 per 1,000.
2,943 babies in 1998, the peak
Caitlyn peaked in 1998, when 2,943 babies were given it (2,937 girls, #115 among girls’ names). The 71 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 71 | #2,492 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 78 | #2,351 | 0.05 |
| 2023 | 103 | #1,925 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | 123 | #1,697 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 127 | #1,643 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 127 | #1,633 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 198 | #1,187 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 206 | #1,170 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 232 | #1,092 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 249 | #1,049 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 494 | #598 | 0.28 |
| 2014 | 692 | #462 | 0.39 |
| 2013 | 754 | #406 | 0.43 |
| 2012 | 826 | #378 | 0.47 |
| 2011 | 930 | #343 | 0.53 |
| 2010 | 1,071 | #302 | 0.60 |
| 2009 | 1,279 | #256 | 0.70 |
| 2008 | 1,492 | #227 | 0.79 |
| 2007 | 1,611 | #214 | 0.84 |
| 2006 | 1,755 | #200 | 0.92 |
| 2005 | 1,898 | #182 | 1.0 |
| 2004 | 2,030 | #165 | 1.1 |
| 2003 | 2,080 | #160 | 1.1 |
| 2002 | 2,266 | #148 | 1.3 |
| 2001 | 2,536 | #133 | 1.4 |
| 2000 | 2,835 | #118 | 1.6 |
| 1999 | 2,673 | #124 | 1.5 |
| 1998 | 2,937 | #115 | 1.7 |
| 1997 | 2,364 | #133 | 1.4 |
| 1996 | 2,334 | #138 | 1.3 |
| 1995 | 2,302 | #138 | 1.3 |
| 1994 | 2,171 | #150 | 1.2 |
| 1993 | 2,044 | #153 | 1.1 |
| 1992 | 1,970 | #156 | 1.1 |
| 1991 | 1,609 | #185 | 0.86 |
| 1990 | 1,587 | #183 | 0.84 |
| 1989 | 1,234 | #221 | 0.67 |
| 1988 | 1,171 | #223 | 0.66 |
| 1987 | 596 | #387 | 0.34 |
| 1986 | 537 | #410 | 0.31 |
| 1985 | 373 | #532 | 0.22 |
| 1984 | 212 | #762 | 0.13 |
| 1983 | 157 | #943 | 0.09 |
| 1982 | 105 | #1,246 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 46 | #2,200 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 42 | #2,312 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 18 | #4,063 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 13 | #4,967 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 13 | #4,967 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 10 | #5,572 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 5 | #8,918 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,421 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,681 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,112 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Caitlyn a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Caitlyn has been given almost only to girls: 34 boys in 54 years of records.
Girls and boys named Caitlyn: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Caitlyn, and how old are they?
51,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 52,637 Americans ever recorded as Caitlyn. The median Caitlyn alive today is 27 years old; half are between 21 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 48,237 people named Caitlyn (48,182 women and girls, 55 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 51,430 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 112 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 18,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 30,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,430 |
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 Caitlyn born?
The states with the most babies named Caitlyn are Texas, Florida and California, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #1,936 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,940 | 1.0× |
| California | 5 | #3,192 | 0.6× |
Where Caitlyn is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Caitlyn is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1968 it was given 1.2 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 Caitlyn 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 431,945 babies since 1880, Caitlyn is the fourth most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 71 of their 594 babies (12%), the third 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 Caitlyn
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 Caitlyn and names like it
- Compare Caitlyn and KaitlynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sCaitlyn peaked in 1998.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Caitlyn since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Caitlyn.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Caitlyn alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.