Kia
Kia was given to 12 girls in 2025, #8,619 among girls’ names; 7,809 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,530 Americans named Kia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 31 and 47.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kia mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kia is “a diminutive of the female given name Christina.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kia?
#8,619 among girls’ names, 2025
Kia fell from #7,813 in 2015 to #8,619 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 8.4 to 7.5 per million.
357 babies in 1993, the peak
Kia peaked in 1993, when 357 babies were given it (344 girls, #649 among girls’ names). The 12 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #8,619 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 7 | #12,814 | under 0.01 |
| 2023 | 5 | #16,441 | under 0.01 |
| 2022 | 21 | #5,875 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 10 | #9,951 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,781 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 14 | #7,946 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 16 | #7,257 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 14 | #8,087 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 21 | #6,079 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 15 | #7,813 | 0.01 |
| 2014 | 23 | #5,713 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 23 | #5,745 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 26 | #5,330 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 31 | #4,626 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 26 | #5,332 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 34 | #4,424 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 35 | #4,408 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 30 | #4,881 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 49 | #3,339 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 56 | #2,915 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 57 | #2,823 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 66 | #2,476 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 95 | #1,880 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 106 | #1,705 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 132 | #1,406 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 153 | #1,232 | 0.09 |
| 1998 | 209 | #971 | 0.12 |
| 1997 | 193 | #1,005 | 0.11 |
| 1996 | 226 | #876 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 211 | #896 | 0.12 |
| 1994 | 229 | #858 | 0.13 |
| 1993 | 344 | #649 | 0.19 |
| 1992 | 247 | #811 | 0.13 |
| 1991 | 253 | #807 | 0.13 |
| 1990 | 229 | #860 | 0.12 |
| 1989 | 205 | #896 | 0.11 |
| 1988 | 153 | #1,047 | 0.09 |
| 1987 | 196 | #867 | 0.11 |
| 1986 | 264 | #690 | 0.15 |
| 1985 | 219 | #773 | 0.13 |
| 1984 | 188 | #833 | 0.11 |
| 1983 | 272 | #634 | 0.16 |
| 1982 | 270 | #662 | 0.16 |
| 1981 | 263 | #666 | 0.16 |
| 1980 | 224 | #740 | 0.13 |
| 1979 | 185 | #841 | 0.12 |
| 1978 | 237 | #673 | 0.15 |
| 1977 | 217 | #715 | 0.14 |
| 1976 | 177 | #794 | 0.12 |
| 1975 | 186 | #763 | 0.13 |
| 1974 | 183 | #763 | 0.12 |
| 1973 | 162 | #811 | 0.11 |
| 1972 | 156 | #838 | 0.10 |
| 1971 | 161 | #850 | 0.10 |
| 1970 | 106 | #1,112 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 65 | #1,458 | 0.04 |
| 1968 | 58 | #1,497 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 40 | #1,866 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 49 | #1,609 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 30 | #2,181 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 27 | #2,384 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 16 | #3,251 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 17 | #3,090 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 19 | #2,892 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 8 | #4,959 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 15 | #3,173 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,562 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,421 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 7,809 Americans recorded as Kia, 97% are girls and 3% boys. In 2025 it went to 12 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kia, and how old are they?
7,530 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 7,809 Americans ever recorded as Kia. The median Kia alive today is 39 years old; half are between 31 and 47.
The 2020 Census counted 8,949 people named Kia (8,264 women and girls, 685 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,518 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Kia rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 96 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,120 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,750 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,330 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 229 |
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 Kia born?
The states with the most babies named Kia are Pennsylvania, California and New York, with 30% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 638 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| California | 583 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New York | 453 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Maryland | 364 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| Texas | 354 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 290 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 260 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 258 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 238 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 229 | not ranked | 1.0× |
Where Kia is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kia is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1956 it was given 5.6 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 Kia 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 29,658 babies since 1880, Kia is the most given (26% of them). In 2025 it was given to 12 of their 421 babies (2.9%), the seventh 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 Kia
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 Kia and names like it
- Compare Kia and KyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKia peaked in 1993.
- Pennsylvania’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kia since 1910.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Kia.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kia alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.