Kiran
Kiran was given to 155 boys in 2025, #1,272 among boys’ names; 5,041 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,950 Americans named Kiran and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kiran by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kiran mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kiran is “a male given name from Sanskrit used by Hindus and Jains.” Its etymology gives the sense “ray of light” (किरण).
Also “a female given name from Sanskrit used by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs.”
From Sanskrit किरण (kiraṇa, “ray of light”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kiran?
#1,272 among boys’ names, 2025
Kiran rose from #1,392 in 2015 to #1,272 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 64.7 to 90.7 per million.
198 babies in 2008, the peak
Kiran peaked in 2008, when 198 babies were given it (119 boys, #1,419 among boys’ names). The 172 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 87% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 17 | #6,696 | 155 | #1,272 |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,922 | 142 | #1,349 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,316 | 109 | #1,601 |
| 2022 | 10 | #10,071 | 108 | #1,617 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,737 | 118 | #1,509 |
| 2020 | 12 | #8,689 | 100 | #1,616 |
| 2019 | 17 | #6,887 | 93 | #1,706 |
| 2018 | 26 | #5,080 | 98 | #1,653 |
| 2017 | 24 | #5,450 | 99 | #1,614 |
| 2016 | 33 | #4,394 | 105 | #1,569 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32 | #4,450 | 124 | #1,392 |
| 2014 | 38 | #3,963 | 97 | #1,614 |
| 2013 | 37 | #4,045 | 114 | #1,452 |
| 2012 | 42 | #3,757 | 119 | #1,403 |
| 2011 | 44 | #3,578 | 102 | #1,555 |
| 2010 | 39 | #3,920 | 102 | #1,561 |
| 2009 | 60 | #2,912 | 116 | #1,449 |
| 2008 | 79 | #2,428 | 119 | #1,419 |
| 2007 | 76 | #2,471 | 88 | #1,715 |
| 2006 | 73 | #2,526 | 90 | #1,612 |
| 2005 | 71 | #2,464 | 87 | #1,589 |
| 2004 | 67 | #2,513 | 87 | #1,535 |
| 2003 | 64 | #2,537 | 81 | #1,571 |
| 2002 | 77 | #2,164 | 71 | #1,669 |
| 2001 | 58 | #2,613 | 53 | #2,015 |
| 2000 | 57 | #2,614 | 52 | #1,980 |
| 1999 | 55 | #2,587 | 61 | #1,713 |
| 1998 | 61 | #2,322 | 45 | #2,079 |
| 1997 | 37 | #3,193 | 34 | #2,423 |
| 1996 | 53 | #2,435 | 37 | #2,232 |
| 1995 | 43 | #2,815 | 22 | #3,146 |
| 1994 | 43 | #2,818 | 25 | #2,899 |
| 1993 | 28 | #3,823 | 30 | #2,479 |
| 1992 | 25 | #4,152 | 25 | #2,776 |
| 1991 | 38 | #3,009 | 20 | #3,171 |
| 1990 | 27 | #3,845 | 11 | #4,851 |
| 1989 | 35 | #3,070 | 12 | #4,411 |
| 1988 | 31 | #3,185 | 16 | #3,283 |
| 1987 | 21 | #4,054 | 7 | #5,803 |
| 1986 | 33 | #2,878 | 11 | #4,004 |
| 1985 | 19 | #4,209 | 13 | #3,519 |
| 1984 | 18 | #4,239 | 15 | #3,035 |
| 1983 | 23 | #3,487 | 16 | #2,851 |
| 1982 | 25 | #3,374 | 17 | #2,772 |
| 1981 | 22 | #3,676 | 15 | #2,967 |
| 1980 | 22 | #3,672 | 17 | #2,794 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,836 | 14 | #3,090 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,084 | 15 | #2,865 |
| 1977 | 17 | #4,136 | 14 | #2,984 |
| 1976 | 12 | #5,036 | 15 | #2,763 |
| 1975 | 23 | #3,101 | 10 | #3,554 |
| 1974 | 11 | #5,157 | 6 | #4,962 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,042 | 5 | #5,505 |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,251 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,926 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,596 | 8 | #3,685 |
| 1968 | 8 | #5,373 | under 5 | |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,522 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Kiran a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 5,041 Americans recorded as Kiran, 37% are girls and 63% boys. Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Kiran every year since 2003. In 2025 it went to 17 girls and 155 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kiran: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kiran, and how old are they?
4,950 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 5,041 Americans ever recorded as Kiran. The median Kiran alive today is 18 years old; half are between 10 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 10,388 people named Kiran (4,462 women and girls, 5,926 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,204 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 times 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 239 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 750 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,240 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,730 |
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 Kiran born?
The states with the most babies named Kiran are California, New York and Texas, with 53% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 30 | #823 | 1.2× |
| New York | 16 | #870 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 10 | #1,709 | 0.5× |
| Massachusetts | 10 | #490 | 0.5× |
| Washington | 9 | #710 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 9 | #903 | 0.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,177 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 5 | #1,983 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,382 | 0.3× |
| Arizona | 5 | #984 | 0.0× |
Where Kiran is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kiran is most over-represented in New York: since 1966 it was given 1.6 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 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 Kiran 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 43,121 babies since 1880, Kiran is the second most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 172 of their 1,893 babies (9.1%), 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 Kiran
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 Kiran and names like it
- Compare Kiran and KieranBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKiran peaked in 2008.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kiran since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Kiran: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Kiran.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kiran alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.