Kailan
Kailan is given to both girls and boys: 7 girls and 28 boys were given it in 2025 (#12,508 among girls’ names and #3,895 among boys’, #7,182 among all names counting both); 1,118 Americans have been recorded with it since 1988 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,110 Americans named Kailan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 23.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kailan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kailan?
#3,895 among boys’ names, 2025
Kailan rose from #5,168 in 2015 to #3,895 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 9.4 to 16.4 per million.
58 babies in 2009, the peak
Kailan peaked in 2009, when 58 babies were given it (19 boys, #5,025 among boys’ names). The 35 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 60% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,508 | 28 | #3,895 |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,874 | 45 | #2,852 |
| 2023 | 8 | #11,667 | 42 | #2,976 |
| 2022 | 7 | #12,847 | 45 | #2,844 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,604 | 24 | #4,303 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,576 | 23 | #4,342 |
| 2019 | 8 | #11,850 | 29 | #3,758 |
| 2018 | 11 | #9,452 | 22 | #4,534 |
| 2017 | 7 | #13,353 | 19 | #5,019 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,450 | 16 | #5,668 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 17 | #7,113 | 18 | #5,168 |
| 2014 | 15 | #7,855 | 23 | #4,323 |
| 2013 | 11 | #9,895 | 15 | #5,789 |
| 2012 | 28 | #5,029 | 17 | #5,367 |
| 2011 | 32 | #4,507 | 15 | #5,810 |
| 2010 | 34 | #4,348 | 17 | #5,360 |
| 2009 | 39 | #3,983 | 19 | #5,025 |
| 2008 | 31 | #4,809 | 17 | #5,358 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,445 | 12 | #6,855 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,577 | 11 | #7,172 |
| 2005 | 19 | #6,399 | 16 | #5,154 |
| 2004 | 8 | #12,134 | 19 | #4,504 |
| 2003 | 9 | #10,832 | 5 | #11,805 |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,608 | 15 | #5,016 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,365 | 9 | #7,204 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,343 | 8 | #7,813 |
| 1999 | 14 | #7,006 | 12 | #5,485 |
| 1998 | 17 | #5,919 | 10 | #6,059 |
| 1997 | 13 | #7,044 | 7 | #7,685 |
| 1996 | 18 | #5,387 | 11 | #5,349 |
| 1995 | 15 | #6,092 | 11 | #5,316 |
| 1994 | 12 | #7,317 | 5 | #9,546 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,808 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 8 | #9,904 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 5 | #14,155 | 8 | #6,221 |
| 1990 | 5 | #13,962 | 6 | #7,619 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,131 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,720 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Kailan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,118 Americans recorded as Kailan, 46% are girls and 54% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kailan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kailan, and how old are they?
1,110 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,118 Americans ever recorded as Kailan. The median Kailan alive today is 15 years old; half are between 7 and 23.
The 2020 Census counted 779 people named Kailan (441 women and girls, 338 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 862 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 | 129 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 504 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 473 |
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 33,476 babies since 1880, Kailan is the eighth most given (3.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 2,361 babies (1.5%), the fifth 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 Kailan
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 Kailan and names like it
- Compare Kailan and CallanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKailan peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kailan since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Kailan.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kailan alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.