Kaitlin
Kaitlin was given to 35 girls in 2025, #4,113 among girls’ names; 57,430 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 56,300 Americans named Kaitlin and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 27 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kaitlin by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kaitlin mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kaitlin 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 Kaitlin?
#4,113 among girls’ names, 2025
Kaitlin fell from #1,332 in 2015 to #4,113 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 99.7 to 21.8 per million.
3,612 babies in 1995, the peak
Kaitlin peaked in 1995, when 3,612 babies were given it (3,602 girls, #94 among girls’ names). The 35 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 35 | #4,113 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 27 | #4,954 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 34 | #4,232 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 23 | #5,545 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 35 | #4,134 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 47 | #3,309 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 67 | #2,617 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 65 | #2,661 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 66 | #2,642 | 0.04 |
| 2016 | 81 | #2,332 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 178 | #1,332 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 251 | #1,034 | 0.14 |
| 2013 | 248 | #1,006 | 0.14 |
| 2012 | 319 | #837 | 0.18 |
| 2011 | 342 | #792 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 441 | #663 | 0.25 |
| 2009 | 531 | #576 | 0.29 |
| 2008 | 673 | #474 | 0.36 |
| 2007 | 781 | #421 | 0.41 |
| 2006 | 957 | #344 | 0.50 |
| 2005 | 1,003 | #321 | 0.54 |
| 2004 | 1,101 | #297 | 0.60 |
| 2003 | 1,191 | #264 | 0.65 |
| 2002 | 1,456 | #219 | 0.81 |
| 2001 | 1,821 | #180 | 1.0 |
| 2000 | 2,136 | #158 | 1.2 |
| 1999 | 2,085 | #155 | 1.2 |
| 1998 | 2,702 | #120 | 1.5 |
| 1997 | 2,667 | #119 | 1.5 |
| 1996 | 3,136 | #103 | 1.8 |
| 1995 | 3,602 | #94 | 2.0 |
| 1994 | 3,501 | #93 | 2.0 |
| 1993 | 3,226 | #99 | 1.8 |
| 1992 | 2,943 | #113 | 1.6 |
| 1991 | 3,486 | #99 | 1.9 |
| 1990 | 3,472 | #101 | 1.8 |
| 1989 | 3,171 | #100 | 1.7 |
| 1988 | 2,841 | #98 | 1.6 |
| 1987 | 1,959 | #141 | 1.1 |
| 1986 | 1,466 | #182 | 0.85 |
| 1985 | 1,236 | #208 | 0.72 |
| 1984 | 682 | #339 | 0.41 |
| 1983 | 506 | #427 | 0.30 |
| 1982 | 253 | #695 | 0.15 |
| 1981 | 211 | #776 | 0.13 |
| 1980 | 135 | #1,056 | 0.08 |
| 1979 | 57 | #1,862 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 34 | #2,534 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 23 | #3,317 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 16 | #4,037 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 17 | #3,839 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #8,974 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #6,855 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,911 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kaitlin a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kaitlin has been given almost only to girls: 75 boys in 54 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kaitlin: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kaitlin, and how old are they?
56,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 57,430 Americans ever recorded as Kaitlin. The median Kaitlin alive today is 32 years old; half are between 27 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 51,533 people named Kaitlin (51,481 women and girls, 52 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 56,396 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 287 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 34,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 20,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,150 |
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 Kaitlin born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #3,097 | 0.6× |
Where Kaitlin is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kaitlin is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1971 it was given 1.3 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 Kaitlin 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 438,654 babies since 1880, Kaitlin is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 35 of their 577 babies (6.1%), 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 Kaitlin
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 Kaitlin and names like it
- Compare Kaitlin and KaitlynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKaitlin peaked in 1995.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kaitlin since 1910.
- The top names of 1995The year the most babies were named Kaitlin.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kaitlin alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.