Cohen
Cohen was given to 1,590 boys in 2025, #225 among boys’ names; 23,429 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 23,100 Americans named Cohen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cohen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cohen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cohen is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “cohen” (כֹּהֵן).
From Hebrew כֹּהֵן (kohén, “cohen”).
/ˈkoʊən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cohen?
#225 among boys’ names, 2025
Cohen rose from #336 in 2015 to #225 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.53 to 0.93 per 1,000.
1,627 babies in 2025, the peak
Cohen peaked in 2025, when 1,627 babies were given it (1,590 boys, #225 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,479 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,590 | #225 | 0.93 |
| 2024 | 1,479 | #239 | 0.86 |
| 2023 | 1,413 | #247 | 0.83 |
| 2022 | 1,252 | #277 | 0.72 |
| 2021 | 1,201 | #287 | 0.69 |
| 2020 | 1,183 | #286 | 0.69 |
| 2019 | 1,135 | #299 | 0.63 |
| 2018 | 1,125 | #305 | 0.62 |
| 2017 | 1,101 | #314 | 0.59 |
| 2016 | 1,089 | #321 | 0.57 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,020 | #336 | 0.53 |
| 2014 | 969 | #342 | 0.50 |
| 2013 | 840 | #369 | 0.44 |
| 2012 | 938 | #336 | 0.49 |
| 2011 | 897 | #337 | 0.47 |
| 2010 | 835 | #360 | 0.44 |
| 2009 | 984 | #326 | 0.50 |
| 2008 | 880 | #356 | 0.43 |
| 2007 | 774 | #391 | 0.37 |
| 2006 | 692 | #414 | 0.34 |
| 2005 | 618 | #432 | 0.31 |
| 2004 | 315 | #652 | 0.16 |
| 2003 | 90 | #1,451 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 72 | #1,646 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 50 | #2,085 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 55 | #1,894 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 54 | #1,824 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,099 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 31 | #2,553 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 23 | #3,120 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 15 | #4,082 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 14 | #4,330 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 20 | #3,255 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 19 | #3,350 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 16 | #3,663 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,044 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #5,717 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 13 | #3,737 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #5,701 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,580 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,454 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,479 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,169 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,152 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,089 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,037 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #3,781 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 5 | #3,774 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 7 | #2,792 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,634 | under 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,581 | under 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #3,869 | under 0.01 |
| 1928 | 5 | #4,262 | under 0.01 |
| 1926 | 8 | #3,182 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 12 | #2,461 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,349 | under 0.01 |
| 1922 | 13 | #2,364 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 10 | #2,840 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,264 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 9 | #2,916 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 6 | #3,811 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 9 | #2,775 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 6 | #2,549 | 0.01 |
| 1912 | 5 | #2,621 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cohen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 23,429 Americans recorded as Cohen, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 37 girls and 1,590 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Cohen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cohen, and how old are they?
23,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 23,429 Americans ever recorded as Cohen. The median Cohen alive today is 9 years old; half are between 4 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 14,451 people named Cohen (243 women and girls, 14,208 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 15,174 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 16 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 13 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 150 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 15,600 |
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 Cohen born?
The states with the most babies named Cohen are Texas, Ohio and Georgia, with 21% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 156 | #251 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 99 | #139 | 1.7× |
| Georgia | 79 | #158 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 71 | #179 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 65 | #296 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 63 | #152 | 1.3× |
| Indiana | 56 | #147 | 1.8× |
| Alabama | 55 | #95 | 1.8× |
| South Carolina | 51 | #103 | 1.1× |
| California | 50 | #593 | 0.3× |
Where Cohen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cohen is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1912 it was given 2.9 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 Cohen 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 45,079 babies since 1880, Cohen is the most given (52% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,627 of their 3,516 babies (46%), 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 Cohen
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 Cohen and names like it
- Compare Cohen and KohenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCohen peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cohen since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Cohen: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Cohen.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Cohen alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.