Xian
Xian was given to 19 boys in 2025, #5,194 among boys’ names; 463 Americans have been recorded with it since 1997 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Xian by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Xian?
#5,194 among boys’ names, 2025
Xian rose from #6,300 in 2015 to #5,194 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.3 to 11.1 per million.
26 babies in 2023, the peak
Xian peaked in 2023, when 26 boys were given it, #4,208 among boys’ names. The 19 births of 2025 are 73% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 19 | #5,194 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 15 | #6,172 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 26 | #4,208 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 13 | #6,796 | |
| 2021 | under 5 | 15 | #6,015 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 19 | #5,026 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 21 | #4,794 | |
| 2018 | under 5 | 21 | #4,726 | |
| 2017 | under 5 | 9 | #8,798 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 11 | #7,571 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6 | #16,309 | 14 | #6,300 |
| 2014 | under 5 | 12 | #7,027 | |
| 2013 | 6 | #16,426 | 17 | #5,386 |
| 2012 | 5 | #19,399 | 18 | #5,234 |
| 2011 | 9 | #12,102 | 10 | #8,043 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,869 | 17 | #5,465 |
| 2009 | 8 | #13,634 | 11 | #7,667 |
| 2008 | 8 | #13,757 | 8 | #9,832 |
| 2007 | under 5 | 13 | #6,596 | |
| 2006 | 5 | #19,928 | 11 | #7,398 |
| 2005 | 7 | #14,441 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 7 | #9,899 | |
| 2003 | 6 | #15,698 | 10 | #7,218 |
| 2002 | under 5 | 5 | #12,432 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 12 | #5,993 | |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,959 | 16 | #4,774 |
| 1999 | 5 | #16,859 | 8 | #7,848 |
| 1998 | 9 | #10,087 | 12 | #5,449 |
| 1997 | under 5 | 6 | #9,224 |
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 Xian a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 463 Americans recorded as Xian, 19% are girls and 81% boys. In 2025 it went to 19 boys; SSA lists no girls 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 Xian: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Xian, and how old are they?
An estimated 458 Americans named Xian and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 7 and 20. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,769 people named Xian (827 women and girls, 942 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 357 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.0 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 1,933 babies since 1880, Xian is the second most given (24% of them). In 2025 it was given to 19 of their 150 babies (13%), 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 Xian
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 Xian and names like it
- Compare Xian and XionBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sXian peaked in 2023.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Xian since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Xian.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Xian alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with XMost given first.