Kanan
Kanan was given to 194 boys in 2025, #1,109 among boys’ names; 1,820 Americans have been recorded with it since 1982 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,800 Americans named Kanan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 5 years old and half are between 3 and 9.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kanan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kanan?
#1,109 among boys’ names, 2025
Kanan rose from #2,999 in 2015 to #1,109 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.02 to 0.11 per 1,000.
225 babies in 2022, the peak
Kanan peaked in 2022, when 225 boys were given it, #993 among boys’ names. The 194 births of 2025 are 86% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 194 | #1,109 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 186 | #1,136 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 198 | #1,085 | 0.12 |
| 2022 | 225 | #993 | 0.13 |
| 2021 | 162 | #1,199 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 102 | #1,595 | 0.06 |
| 2019 | 128 | #1,391 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 160 | #1,190 | 0.09 |
| 2017 | 102 | #1,589 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 67 | #2,102 | 0.04 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 39 | #2,999 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 10 | #7,845 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 8 | #9,222 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 17 | #5,372 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 10 | #7,785 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 12 | #6,891 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 17 | #5,426 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 14 | #6,254 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 11 | #7,345 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 20 | #4,598 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 9 | #7,983 | under 0.01 |
| 2004 | 10 | #7,268 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 12 | #6,055 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 11 | #6,308 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 8 | #7,819 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 5 | #10,763 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 8 | #7,201 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,691 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 15 | #4,280 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,701 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 11 | #5,270 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 9 | #5,982 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,943 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 6 | #7,749 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kanan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kanan has been given almost only to boys: 11 girls in 35 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kanan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kanan, and how old are they?
1,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,820 Americans ever recorded as Kanan. The median Kanan alive today is 5 years old; half are between 3 and 9.
The 2020 Census counted 1,000 people named Kanan (281 women and girls, 719 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 772 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 60 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 174 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,570 |
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 Kanan born?
The states with the most babies named Kanan are Texas, California and North Carolina, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 21 | #1,083 | 0.7× |
| California | 17 | #1,175 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 12 | #742 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 11 | #1,163 | 0.7× |
| Mississippi | 11 | #300 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 10 | #886 | 1.1× |
| South Carolina | 10 | #483 | 1.5× |
| Louisiana | 7 | #628 | 2.2× |
| Kentucky | 7 | #596 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,167 | 0.7× |
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 Kanan 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 25,548 babies since 1880, Kanan is the fifth most given (7.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 194 of their 1,020 babies (19%), the third 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 Kanan
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 Kanan and names like it
- Compare Kanan and KannonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKanan peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kanan since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Kanan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Kanan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.