Kristen
Kristen was given to 96 girls in 2025, #1,999 among girls’ names; 220,952 Americans have been recorded with it since 1938 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 211,000 Americans named Kristen and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 34 and 48.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kristen by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kristen mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kristen is “a female given name from Ancient Greek.”
A spelling variant of Kristin, from Christina, fairly popular in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kristen?
#1,999 among girls’ names, 2025
Kristen fell from #890 in 2015 to #1,999 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.17 to 0.06 per 1,000.
9,596 babies in 1982, the peak
Kristen peaked in 1982, when 9,596 babies were given it (9,534 girls, #33 among girls’ names). The 106 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 96 | #1,999 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 181 | #1,283 | 0.11 |
| 2023 | 143 | #1,508 | 0.09 |
| 2022 | 119 | #1,747 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 134 | #1,573 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 137 | #1,548 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 174 | #1,316 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 190 | #1,230 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 221 | #1,129 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 253 | #1,045 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (88)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 310 | #890 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 340 | #815 | 0.19 |
| 2013 | 389 | #714 | 0.22 |
| 2012 | 429 | #659 | 0.24 |
| 2011 | 430 | #660 | 0.24 |
| 2010 | 508 | #577 | 0.29 |
| 2009 | 566 | #533 | 0.31 |
| 2008 | 644 | #491 | 0.34 |
| 2007 | 768 | #428 | 0.40 |
| 2006 | 876 | #372 | 0.46 |
| 2005 | 984 | #326 | 0.53 |
| 2004 | 1,220 | #264 | 0.66 |
| 2003 | 1,437 | #229 | 0.79 |
| 2002 | 1,716 | #186 | 1.0 |
| 2001 | 1,991 | #162 | 1.1 |
| 2000 | 2,356 | #142 | 1.3 |
| 1999 | 2,846 | #114 | 1.6 |
| 1998 | 3,348 | #102 | 1.9 |
| 1997 | 4,085 | #82 | 2.3 |
| 1996 | 4,851 | #70 | 2.8 |
| 1995 | 5,398 | #65 | 3.1 |
| 1994 | 5,871 | #55 | 3.3 |
| 1993 | 5,534 | #61 | 3.1 |
| 1992 | 6,253 | #53 | 3.4 |
| 1991 | 6,816 | #48 | 3.6 |
| 1990 | 8,073 | #42 | 4.3 |
| 1989 | 8,803 | #36 | 4.8 |
| 1988 | 8,382 | #36 | 4.7 |
| 1987 | 7,361 | #42 | 4.2 |
| 1986 | 7,844 | #41 | 4.6 |
| 1985 | 8,445 | #38 | 4.9 |
| 1984 | 8,385 | #38 | 5.0 |
| 1983 | 8,618 | #37 | 5.2 |
| 1982 | 9,534 | #33 | 5.6 |
| 1981 | 8,540 | #38 | 5.1 |
| 1980 | 7,316 | #39 | 4.4 |
| 1979 | 4,568 | #62 | 2.8 |
| 1978 | 4,368 | #62 | 2.9 |
| 1977 | 3,861 | #72 | 2.5 |
| 1976 | 3,653 | #73 | 2.5 |
| 1975 | 4,674 | #60 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 6,052 | #45 | 4.1 |
| 1973 | 4,936 | #58 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 3,527 | #85 | 2.3 |
| 1971 | 3,967 | #87 | 2.4 |
| 1970 | 4,600 | #83 | 2.6 |
| 1969 | 3,812 | #96 | 2.3 |
| 1968 | 3,243 | #107 | 2.0 |
| 1967 | 2,751 | #124 | 1.7 |
| 1966 | 2,323 | #149 | 1.4 |
| 1965 | 1,726 | #191 | 1.0 |
| 1964 | 1,333 | #239 | 0.70 |
| 1963 | 1,015 | #288 | 0.53 |
| 1962 | 755 | #344 | 0.38 |
| 1961 | 540 | #422 | 0.27 |
| 1960 | 541 | #415 | 0.27 |
| 1959 | 542 | #404 | 0.27 |
| 1958 | 390 | #482 | 0.19 |
| 1957 | 296 | #557 | 0.14 |
| 1956 | 249 | #605 | 0.12 |
| 1955 | 230 | #611 | 0.12 |
| 1954 | 217 | #616 | 0.11 |
| 1953 | 256 | #543 | 0.14 |
| 1952 | 280 | #500 | 0.15 |
| 1951 | 193 | #619 | 0.11 |
| 1950 | 158 | #677 | 0.09 |
| 1949 | 171 | #632 | 0.10 |
| 1948 | 162 | #654 | 0.10 |
| 1947 | 153 | #678 | 0.09 |
| 1946 | 93 | #858 | 0.06 |
| 1945 | 54 | #1,070 | 0.04 |
| 1944 | 48 | #1,134 | 0.04 |
| 1943 | 51 | #1,134 | 0.04 |
| 1942 | 20 | #1,948 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 17 | #2,058 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 7 | #3,682 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 13 | #2,356 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,675 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kristen a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kristen has been given almost only to girls: 2,185 boys in 88 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kristen: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kristen, and how old are they?
211,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 220,952 Americans ever recorded as Kristen. The median Kristen alive today is 41 years old; half are between 34 and 48.
The 2020 Census counted 199,107 people named Kristen (197,837 women and girls, 1,270 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 213,024 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 112 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 6,370 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 61,700 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 116,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 24,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,790 |
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 Kristen born?
The states with the most babies named Kristen are California, New York and Texas, with 24% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 20,138 | #2,395 | 0.7× |
| New York | 18,290 | #1,956 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 13,395 | #1,673 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 12,947 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 11,568 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 9,899 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 9,802 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Michigan | 9,380 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 8,664 | #991 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 8,545 | #1,498 | 0.9× |
Where Kristen is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kristen is most over-represented in Rhode Island: since 1938 it was given 2.0 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 Kristen 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 481,879 babies since 1880, Kristen is the most given (46% of them). In 2025 it was given to 106 of their 217 babies (49%), again the 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 Kristen
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 Kristen and names like it
- Compare Kristen and KristinBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sKristen peaked in 1982.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kristen since 1910.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Kristen: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1982The year the most babies were named Kristen.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kristen alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.