Cian
Cian was given to 148 boys in 2025, #1,310 among boys’ names; 3,751 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,700 Americans named Cian and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 8 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cian by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cian mean?
Wiktionary, Irish section
Cian is “a male given name from Old Irish used in Ireland” Its etymology gives the sense “long, distant, lasting” (cían).
From Old Irish Cían, from cían (“long, distant, lasting”).
/ˈciənˠ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Irish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cian?
#1,310 among boys’ names, 2025
Cian fell from #1,192 in 2015 to #1,310 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 80.9 to 86.6 per million.
186 babies in 2007, the peak
Cian peaked in 2007, when 186 babies were given it (181 boys, #1,039 among boys’ names). The 148 births of 2025 are 80% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 148 | #1,310 | 86.6 |
| 2024 | 115 | #1,530 | 66.7 |
| 2023 | 126 | #1,441 | 73.7 |
| 2022 | 136 | #1,375 | 77.9 |
| 2021 | 150 | #1,268 | 85.7 |
| 2020 | 118 | #1,461 | 68.4 |
| 2019 | 127 | #1,394 | 70.8 |
| 2018 | 145 | #1,264 | 79.8 |
| 2017 | 163 | #1,156 | 88.1 |
| 2016 | 156 | #1,210 | 82.2 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 155 | #1,192 | 80.9 |
| 2014 | 152 | #1,207 | 79.1 |
| 2013 | 130 | #1,322 | 68.7 |
| 2012 | 142 | #1,244 | 74.9 |
| 2011 | 114 | #1,441 | 60.0 |
| 2010 | 129 | #1,324 | 67.2 |
| 2009 | 139 | #1,266 | 70.1 |
| 2008 | 153 | #1,170 | 75.0 |
| 2007 | 181 | #1,039 | 87.2 |
| 2006 | 140 | #1,195 | 68.1 |
| 2005 | 120 | #1,282 | 60.1 |
| 2004 | 117 | #1,279 | 58.9 |
| 2003 | 103 | #1,335 | 52.1 |
| 2002 | 80 | #1,544 | 41.2 |
| 2001 | 82 | #1,480 | 42.2 |
| 2000 | 69 | #1,664 | 35.1 |
| 1999 | 52 | #1,879 | 27.1 |
| 1998 | 49 | #1,960 | 25.6 |
| 1997 | 32 | #2,501 | 17.0 |
| 1996 | 37 | #2,217 | 19.5 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,772 | 13.7 |
| 1994 | 20 | #3,342 | 10.4 |
| 1993 | 10 | #5,408 | 5.1 |
| 1992 | 19 | #3,348 | 9.5 |
| 1991 | 5 | #8,398 | 2.5 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,041 | 4.9 |
| 1989 | 12 | #4,309 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 9 | #4,844 | 4.7 |
| 1986 | 9 | #4,527 | 4.9 |
| 1985 | 9 | #4,381 | 4.9 |
| 1982 | 6 | #5,761 | 3.3 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,583 | 4.5 |
| 1980 | 6 | #5,640 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 10 | #3,849 | 5.8 |
| 1976 | 5 | #5,748 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cian a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cian has been given almost only to boys: 27 girls in 45 years of records.
Girls and boys named Cian: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cian, and how old are they?
3,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,751 Americans ever recorded as Cian. The median Cian alive today is 14 years old; half are between 8 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 2,966 people named Cian (100 women and girls, 2,866 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,956 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 | 19 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 172 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,700 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,810 |
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 Cian born?
The states with the most babies named Cian are New York, California and New Jersey, with 39% of its births recorded by state in 2025; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 16 | #851 | 1.6× |
| California | 14 | #1,310 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 12 | #580 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 9 | #746 | 0.4× |
| Massachusetts | 8 | #560 | 3.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #928 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 8 | #949 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,671 | 0.6× |
| Colorado | 6 | #780 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,027 | 0.7× |
Where Cian is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cian is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1976 it was given 3.0 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 Cian 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 28,516 babies since 1880, Cian is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 148 of their 1,580 babies (9.4%), the fourth 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 Cian
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 Cian and names like it
- Compare Cian and KianBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCian peaked in 2007.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cian since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Cian.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Cian alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.