Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn was given to 340 girls in 2025, #802 among girls’ names; 166,921 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 164,000 Americans named Kaitlyn and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 20 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kaitlyn by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kaitlyn mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kaitlyn 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 Kaitlyn?
#802 among girls’ names, 2025
Kaitlyn fell from #197 in 2015 to #802 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.93 to 0.21 per 1,000.
8,771 babies in 2000, the peak
Kaitlyn peaked in 2000, when 8,771 babies were given it (8,759 girls, #30 among girls’ names). The 340 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 340 | #802 | 0.21 |
| 2024 | 453 | #650 | 0.28 |
| 2023 | 483 | #619 | 0.30 |
| 2022 | 470 | #630 | 0.29 |
| 2021 | 520 | #583 | 0.32 |
| 2020 | 624 | #488 | 0.39 |
| 2019 | 701 | #444 | 0.42 |
| 2018 | 805 | #386 | 0.47 |
| 2017 | 938 | #346 | 0.54 |
| 2016 | 999 | #331 | 0.56 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,663 | #197 | 0.93 |
| 2014 | 2,060 | #160 | 1.2 |
| 2013 | 2,379 | #134 | 1.4 |
| 2012 | 2,601 | #118 | 1.5 |
| 2011 | 2,908 | #100 | 1.7 |
| 2010 | 3,303 | #90 | 1.9 |
| 2009 | 4,207 | #67 | 2.3 |
| 2008 | 5,117 | #53 | 2.7 |
| 2007 | 5,551 | #44 | 2.9 |
| 2006 | 6,074 | #41 | 3.2 |
| 2005 | 6,521 | #34 | 3.5 |
| 2004 | 6,988 | #33 | 3.8 |
| 2003 | 7,547 | #32 | 4.1 |
| 2002 | 7,981 | #32 | 4.4 |
| 2001 | 8,164 | #31 | 4.5 |
| 2000 | 8,759 | #30 | 4.8 |
| 1999 | 8,158 | #33 | 4.6 |
| 1998 | 7,937 | #35 | 4.5 |
| 1997 | 7,005 | #41 | 4.0 |
| 1996 | 7,241 | #40 | 4.1 |
| 1995 | 7,385 | #42 | 4.2 |
| 1994 | 6,686 | #48 | 3.7 |
| 1993 | 6,956 | #46 | 3.8 |
| 1992 | 7,480 | #42 | 4.1 |
| 1991 | 4,407 | #82 | 2.4 |
| 1990 | 4,312 | #78 | 2.3 |
| 1989 | 3,392 | #95 | 1.8 |
| 1988 | 2,688 | #106 | 1.5 |
| 1987 | 1,706 | #163 | 1.0 |
| 1986 | 1,207 | #219 | 0.70 |
| 1985 | 879 | #284 | 0.51 |
| 1984 | 449 | #466 | 0.27 |
| 1983 | 274 | #632 | 0.16 |
| 1982 | 138 | #1,047 | 0.08 |
| 1981 | 92 | #1,356 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 65 | #1,727 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 29 | #2,960 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,535 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,764 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,585 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,500 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,870 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kaitlyn a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kaitlyn has been given almost only to girls: 232 boys in 52 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kaitlyn: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kaitlyn, and how old are they?
164,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 166,921 Americans ever recorded as Kaitlyn. The median Kaitlyn alive today is 26 years old; half are between 20 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 148,542 people named Kaitlyn (148,383 women and girls, 159 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 162,323 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 134 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 54,200 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 97,800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 12,400 |
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 Kaitlyn born?
The states with the most babies named Kaitlyn are Texas, California and New York, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 38 | #788 | 0.8× |
| California | 31 | #924 | 0.7× |
| New York | 31 | #539 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 20 | #814 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 17 | #605 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 16 | #484 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #668 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 15 | #643 | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 12 | #659 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #868 | 1.1× |
Where Kaitlyn is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kaitlyn is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1971 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 Kaitlyn 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 563,943 babies since 1880, Kaitlyn is the most given (30% of them). In 2025 it was given to 340 of their 802 babies (42%), 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 Kaitlyn
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 Kaitlyn and names like it
- Compare Kaitlyn and KatelynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKaitlyn peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kaitlyn since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Kaitlyn.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kaitlyn alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.