Kris
Kris is given to both girls and boys: 8 girls and 37 boys were given it in 2025 (#11,459 among girls’ names and #3,217 among boys’, #6,056 among all names counting both); 27,971 Americans have been recorded with it since 1937 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Kris every year since 1971.
An estimated 23,800 Americans named Kris and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (85% of everyone recorded); the median is 59 years old and half are between 50 and 65.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kris by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kris mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kris is “a diminutive of the male given names Christopher, Christian, and related given names.”
Also “a diminutive of the female given names Kristina, Kristin, Kristine and related given names (Christina, etc).”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kris?
#3,217 among boys’ names, 2025
Kris fell from #2,265 in 2015 to #3,217 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 30.8 to 21.7 per million.
1,387 babies in 1965, the peak
Kris peaked in 1965, when 1,387 babies were given it (409 boys, #384 among boys’ names). The 45 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,459 | 37 | #3,217 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,678 | 32 | #3,567 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,778 | 28 | #3,947 |
| 2022 | 5 | #16,609 | 34 | #3,440 |
| 2021 | 10 | #9,964 | 59 | #2,340 |
| 2020 | 13 | #8,208 | 65 | #2,158 |
| 2019 | 12 | #8,858 | 83 | #1,835 |
| 2018 | 14 | #7,976 | 73 | #2,007 |
| 2017 | 15 | #7,660 | 74 | #1,947 |
| 2016 | 16 | #7,442 | 57 | #2,320 |
Every recorded year (88)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 24 | #5,580 | 59 | #2,265 |
| 2014 | 17 | #7,164 | 63 | #2,168 |
| 2013 | 19 | #6,600 | 60 | #2,190 |
| 2012 | 11 | #10,096 | 72 | #1,975 |
| 2011 | 15 | #8,005 | 55 | #2,329 |
| 2010 | 16 | #7,732 | 50 | #2,493 |
| 2009 | 15 | #8,257 | 102 | #1,586 |
| 2008 | 13 | #9,269 | 80 | #1,835 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,507 | 82 | #1,787 |
| 2006 | 10 | #11,055 | 87 | #1,652 |
| 2005 | 12 | #9,180 | 73 | #1,793 |
| 2004 | 18 | #6,640 | 63 | #1,941 |
| 2003 | 12 | #8,802 | 59 | #1,969 |
| 2002 | 16 | #6,883 | 72 | #1,653 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,494 | 74 | #1,604 |
| 2000 | 7 | #12,515 | 56 | #1,883 |
| 1999 | 12 | #7,984 | 55 | #1,809 |
| 1998 | 13 | #7,339 | 63 | #1,653 |
| 1997 | 23 | #4,592 | 60 | #1,662 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,814 | 65 | #1,542 |
| 1995 | 22 | #4,610 | 65 | #1,479 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,497 | 67 | #1,442 |
| 1993 | 25 | #4,168 | 66 | #1,434 |
| 1992 | 26 | #4,020 | 86 | #1,211 |
| 1991 | 30 | #3,577 | 61 | #1,454 |
| 1990 | 30 | #3,571 | 79 | #1,241 |
| 1989 | 28 | #3,609 | 73 | #1,269 |
| 1988 | 29 | #3,347 | 91 | #1,034 |
| 1987 | 34 | #2,878 | 100 | #943 |
| 1986 | 24 | #3,596 | 92 | #956 |
| 1985 | 37 | #2,621 | 98 | #921 |
| 1984 | 35 | #2,646 | 121 | #793 |
| 1983 | 52 | #1,976 | 111 | #831 |
| 1982 | 57 | #1,886 | 125 | #790 |
| 1981 | 70 | #1,652 | 159 | #686 |
| 1980 | 96 | #1,324 | 214 | #591 |
| 1979 | 103 | #1,247 | 299 | #476 |
| 1978 | 131 | #1,043 | 380 | #397 |
| 1977 | 110 | #1,151 | 398 | #395 |
| 1976 | 110 | #1,100 | 298 | #453 |
| 1975 | 141 | #922 | 323 | #439 |
| 1974 | 167 | #809 | 416 | #379 |
| 1973 | 215 | #692 | 356 | #416 |
| 1972 | 273 | #587 | 399 | #395 |
| 1971 | 322 | #556 | 397 | #405 |
| 1970 | 437 | #470 | 415 | #393 |
| 1969 | 529 | #415 | 365 | #415 |
| 1968 | 598 | #371 | 282 | #458 |
| 1967 | 724 | #326 | 319 | #426 |
| 1966 | 870 | #289 | 357 | #397 |
| 1965 | 978 | #277 | 409 | #384 |
| 1964 | 940 | #302 | 433 | #380 |
| 1963 | 734 | #350 | 504 | #344 |
| 1962 | 590 | #389 | 513 | #347 |
| 1961 | 620 | #388 | 501 | #355 |
| 1960 | 575 | #398 | 469 | #362 |
| 1959 | 590 | #390 | 467 | #362 |
| 1958 | 568 | #385 | 439 | #371 |
| 1957 | 419 | #462 | 358 | #408 |
| 1956 | 302 | #538 | 267 | #463 |
| 1955 | 260 | #566 | 239 | #473 |
| 1954 | 187 | #683 | 204 | #507 |
| 1953 | 158 | #722 | 193 | #501 |
| 1952 | 154 | #717 | 216 | #471 |
| 1951 | 149 | #715 | 145 | #573 |
| 1950 | 104 | #870 | 106 | #674 |
| 1949 | 94 | #914 | 107 | #665 |
| 1948 | 116 | #802 | 94 | #689 |
| 1947 | 101 | #875 | 60 | #901 |
| 1946 | 69 | #1,019 | 53 | #917 |
| 1945 | 45 | #1,179 | 26 | #1,313 |
| 1944 | 33 | #1,416 | 36 | #1,117 |
| 1943 | 16 | #2,306 | 19 | #1,670 |
| 1942 | 13 | #2,601 | 8 | #2,822 |
| 1941 | 8 | #3,399 | 10 | #2,414 |
| 1940 | 8 | #3,360 | 9 | #2,584 |
| 1939 | under 5 | 6 | #3,296 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 5 | #3,800 |
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 Kris a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 27,971 Americans recorded as Kris, 49% are girls and 51% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kris: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kris, and how old are they?
23,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 85% of the 27,971 Americans ever recorded as Kris. The median Kris alive today is 59 years old; half are between 50 and 65.
The 2020 Census counted 33,727 people named Kris (13,759 women and girls, 19,968 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 24,698 born in the U.S. The Census count is 37% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 110 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9,380 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 10,200 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,290 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 887 |
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 Kris born?
The states with the most babies named Kris are California, Michigan and New York, with 29% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 3,311 | #2,106 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 1,705 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| New York | 1,440 | #1,917 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 1,333 | #2,008 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 1,303 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 1,295 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Minnesota | 1,207 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| Wisconsin | 1,170 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 1,141 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Washington | 852 | not ranked | 1.8× |
Where Kris is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kris is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1937 it was given 2.1 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 Kris 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 205,082 babies since 1880, Kris is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 45 of their 526 babies (8.6%), 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 Kris
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 Kris and names like it
- Compare Kris and ChrisBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sKris peaked in 1965.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kris since 1910.
- The top names of 1965The year the most babies were named Kris.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Kris alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.