Kirsten
Kirsten was given to 60 girls in 2025, #2,841 among girls’ names; 53,393 Americans have been recorded with it since 1937 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 51,100 Americans named Kirsten and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 35 years old and half are between 27 and 49.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kirsten by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kirsten mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kirsten is “a female given name from Ancient Greek.”
From North Germanic (Danish Kirsten and Norwegian Kirsten). Doublet of Christina.
/ˈkɝstən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kirsten?
#2,841 among girls’ names, 2025
Kirsten fell from #1,715 in 2015 to #2,841 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 68.9 to 37.3 per million.
1,938 babies in 1991, the peak
Kirsten peaked in 1991, when 1,938 babies were given it (1,931 girls, #154 among girls’ names). The 60 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 60 | #2,841 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 51 | #3,145 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 36 | #4,086 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 63 | #2,738 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 57 | #2,943 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 70 | #2,484 | 0.04 |
| 2019 | 60 | #2,803 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 89 | #2,140 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 107 | #1,897 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 150 | #1,513 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (89)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 123 | #1,715 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 184 | #1,297 | 0.10 |
| 2013 | 212 | #1,137 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 256 | #987 | 0.15 |
| 2011 | 309 | #854 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 319 | #842 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 454 | #652 | 0.25 |
| 2008 | 543 | #568 | 0.29 |
| 2007 | 726 | #444 | 0.38 |
| 2006 | 783 | #407 | 0.41 |
| 2005 | 1,003 | #322 | 0.54 |
| 2004 | 1,089 | #298 | 0.59 |
| 2003 | 1,116 | #280 | 0.61 |
| 2002 | 1,126 | #278 | 0.63 |
| 2001 | 1,224 | #260 | 0.68 |
| 2000 | 1,273 | #255 | 0.70 |
| 1999 | 1,533 | #200 | 0.86 |
| 1998 | 1,547 | #202 | 0.88 |
| 1997 | 1,633 | #185 | 0.94 |
| 1996 | 1,773 | #176 | 1.0 |
| 1995 | 1,681 | #180 | 1.0 |
| 1994 | 1,537 | #193 | 0.86 |
| 1993 | 1,546 | #189 | 0.85 |
| 1992 | 1,832 | #166 | 1.0 |
| 1991 | 1,931 | #154 | 1.0 |
| 1990 | 1,869 | #157 | 1.0 |
| 1989 | 1,538 | #183 | 0.83 |
| 1988 | 1,221 | #214 | 0.69 |
| 1987 | 891 | #276 | 0.51 |
| 1986 | 747 | #322 | 0.44 |
| 1985 | 751 | #319 | 0.44 |
| 1984 | 724 | #324 | 0.43 |
| 1983 | 715 | #324 | 0.43 |
| 1982 | 740 | #328 | 0.44 |
| 1981 | 709 | #335 | 0.43 |
| 1980 | 705 | #343 | 0.42 |
| 1979 | 817 | #293 | 0.51 |
| 1978 | 814 | #285 | 0.53 |
| 1977 | 687 | #336 | 0.45 |
| 1976 | 714 | #316 | 0.49 |
| 1975 | 762 | #303 | 0.52 |
| 1974 | 808 | #296 | 0.55 |
| 1973 | 790 | #297 | 0.54 |
| 1972 | 901 | #284 | 0.59 |
| 1971 | 936 | #296 | 0.56 |
| 1970 | 1,034 | #284 | 0.59 |
| 1969 | 1,156 | #253 | 0.69 |
| 1968 | 1,107 | #248 | 0.67 |
| 1967 | 816 | #303 | 0.49 |
| 1966 | 852 | #297 | 0.50 |
| 1965 | 641 | #358 | 0.36 |
| 1964 | 687 | #363 | 0.36 |
| 1963 | 598 | #392 | 0.31 |
| 1962 | 306 | #561 | 0.16 |
| 1961 | 241 | #663 | 0.12 |
| 1960 | 258 | #629 | 0.13 |
| 1959 | 195 | #717 | 0.10 |
| 1958 | 139 | #866 | 0.07 |
| 1957 | 109 | #995 | 0.05 |
| 1956 | 87 | #1,110 | 0.04 |
| 1955 | 79 | #1,122 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 59 | #1,294 | 0.03 |
| 1953 | 38 | #1,597 | 0.02 |
| 1952 | 46 | #1,432 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 33 | #1,680 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 28 | #1,814 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 35 | #1,577 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 36 | #1,556 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 31 | #1,739 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 34 | #1,521 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 24 | #1,720 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 27 | #1,589 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 28 | #1,610 | 0.02 |
| 1942 | 30 | #1,513 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 28 | #1,487 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 24 | #1,614 | 0.02 |
| 1939 | 16 | #2,078 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 14 | #2,282 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 10 | #2,843 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kirsten a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kirsten has been given almost only to girls: 212 boys in 89 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kirsten: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kirsten, and how old are they?
51,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 53,393 Americans ever recorded as Kirsten. The median Kirsten alive today is 35 years old; half are between 27 and 49.
The 2020 Census counted 50,529 people named Kirsten (50,301 women and girls, 228 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 51,405 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 94 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,550 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 12,600 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 19,800 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,250 |
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 Kirsten born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 12 | #791 | 1.2× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,151 | 0.8× |
Where Kirsten is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kirsten is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1937 it was given 1.7 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 Kirsten 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 310,203 babies since 1880, Kirsten is the second most given (17% of them). In 2025 it was given to 60 of their 207 babies (29%), again the second 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 Kirsten
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 Kirsten and names like it
- Compare Kirsten and KristenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKirsten peaked in 1991.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kirsten since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Kirsten: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Kirsten.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kirsten alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.