Kanaan
Kanaan was given to 49 boys in 2025, #2,661 among boys’ names; 1,193 Americans have been recorded with it since 1990 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,180 Americans named Kanaan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kanaan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kanaan?
#2,661 among boys’ names, 2025
Kanaan fell from #2,446 in 2015 to #2,661 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 27.1 to 28.7 per million.
87 babies in 2018, the peak
Kanaan peaked in 2018, when 87 boys were given it, #1,769 among boys’ names. The 49 births of 2025 are 56% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 49 | #2,661 | 28.7 |
| 2024 | 66 | #2,200 | 38.3 |
| 2023 | 60 | #2,332 | 35.1 |
| 2022 | 80 | #1,942 | 45.8 |
| 2021 | 81 | #1,894 | 46.3 |
| 2020 | 84 | #1,792 | 48.7 |
| 2019 | 74 | #1,986 | 41.2 |
| 2018 | 87 | #1,769 | 47.9 |
| 2017 | 80 | #1,849 | 43.2 |
| 2016 | 74 | #1,964 | 39.0 |
Every recorded year (35)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 52 | #2,446 | 27.1 |
| 2014 | 26 | #3,957 | 13.5 |
| 2013 | 25 | #4,010 | 13.2 |
| 2012 | 26 | #3,948 | 13.7 |
| 2011 | 22 | #4,433 | 11.6 |
| 2010 | 25 | #4,049 | 13.0 |
| 2009 | 36 | #3,193 | 18.1 |
| 2008 | 23 | #4,328 | 11.3 |
| 2007 | 24 | #4,185 | 11.6 |
| 2006 | 23 | #4,157 | 11.2 |
| 2005 | 19 | #4,556 | 9.5 |
| 2004 | 26 | #3,584 | 13.1 |
| 2003 | 14 | #5,408 | 7.1 |
| 2002 | 15 | #5,020 | 7.7 |
| 2001 | 13 | #5,518 | 6.7 |
| 2000 | 9 | #7,103 | 4.6 |
| 1999 | 14 | #4,883 | 7.3 |
| 1998 | 13 | #5,022 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 5 | #10,022 | 2.7 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,547 | 3.7 |
| 1995 | 8 | #6,676 | 4.2 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,667 | 5.2 |
| 1993 | 7 | #7,202 | 3.6 |
| 1991 | 6 | #7,748 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,184 | 4.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kanaan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kanaan has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 35 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kanaan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kanaan, and how old are they?
1,180 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,193 Americans ever recorded as Kanaan. The median Kanaan alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 731 people named Kanaan (38 women and girls, 693 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 787 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 46 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 303 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 832 |
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).
How common is the spelling Kanaan?
Kanaan is a less common spelling of Canaan: SSA has recorded 1,193 Kanaan and 6,167 Canaan since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 20,324 babies since 1880, Kanaan is the sixth most given (5.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 49 of their 861 babies (5.7%), 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 Kanaan
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 Kanaan and names like it
- Compare Kanaan and CanaanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKanaan peaked in 2018.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kanaan since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Kanaan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kanaan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.