Caiden
Variant of the Gaelic name Caden, meaning "young fighter".
Name Census estimates that about 23,174 living Americans carry the first name Caiden. It is a predominantly male name (97.8% of registrations). The average person named Caiden today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Caiden births was 2008 (1,445 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Caiden. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Caiden with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Caiden is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 521 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Caiden is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 14,790 Americans
Peak year
2008
1,445 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#544
Tracked since 1990
Census
Caiden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,388 people with the first name Caiden, which placed it at #1,742 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,742
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,388 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Caiden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caiden is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.6%) and Hispanic (10.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Caiden described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Caiden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.9% · 10,583
- Black or African American18.6% · 3,233
- Hispanic or Latino10.0% · 1,743
- Two or more races8.2% · 1,418
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 293
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 118
Gender
Gender distribution for Caiden
Caiden leans heavily male at 97.8% of total registrations, but 521 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Caiden as a male name
- Ranked #544 in 2024
- 544 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (1,403 births)
Caiden as a female name
- Ranked #15,668 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (47 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Caiden leans strongly male. 16,908 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 483 female bearers (2.8%).
Popularity
Caiden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Caiden from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 11,927 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Caiden by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Caiden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Caidens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Caiden, while Wyoming, Hawaii, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 439 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Caiden
The name Caiden is a modern English variant of the traditional Irish name Cáidín. It is derived from the Irish Gaelic word "cádh" which means "battle" or "warrior". The name Cáidín itself first emerged in the late medieval period, around the 12th or 13th century, as a diminutive form of the name Cádoc, which was a popular name among Celtic Christians.
Cádoc was the name of a 6th century Welsh monk and saint who founded several monasteries in Wales and Brittany. The name Cádoc is thought to have originated from the Old Celtic word "catu" meaning "battle". As such, Cáidín and its modern variant Caiden can be interpreted to mean "little warrior" or "young fighter".
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Caiden can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. The entry from the year 1201 mentions a man named "Cáidín Ua Dubdáin", who was the chief poet of the O'Conor dynasty in Connacht.
Throughout medieval and early modern history, there are a few notable individuals who bore the name Cáidín or its variants. In the 14th century, Cáidín O'Mulconry was a renowned Irish chronicler and historian who compiled the Leabhar Ua Maine, a collection of genealogies and histories of Irish clans.
In the 16th century, Cáidín O'Hartigan was a prominent Irish bard and poet who served as the chief ollamh (master poet) to the O'Donnell clan of Donegal. His poetic works, which celebrated the exploits of the O'Donnell chieftains, have been preserved in several Irish manuscripts.
Another notable figure from this period was Cáidín O'Mulrian, a 17th century Irish Franciscan friar who served as the Bishop of Kilmacduagh in County Galway.
In more recent times, one of the earliest recorded instances of the English spelling "Caiden" can be found in the 18th century. Caiden Grier was a Scottish soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War, serving in the Royal Highland Emigrants regiment under the command of Sir John Johnson.
In the 19th century, Caiden Cowper was a British naval officer who achieved fame for his exploits during the Napoleonic Wars. He served as a captain in the Royal Navy and was commended for his bravery in several battles against the French fleet.
People
Caiden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Caiden as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Caiden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Caiden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,174 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Caiden going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 14,790 US residents.
Is Caiden a common name?
We classify Caiden as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,380 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Caiden most popular?
The single biggest year for Caiden was 2008, when 1,445 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Caiden is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Caiden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,388 people with the name Caiden, or 5.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,742 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Caiden in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Caiden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Caiden leans strongly male. 16,908 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 483 female bearers (2.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Caiden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caiden is White at 60.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.6%) and Hispanic (10.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Caiden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Caiden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.9% (10,583 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Caiden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Caiden a male name?
Yes, 97.8% of people registered as Caiden in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Caiden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Caiden in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Caiden can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Caiden as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.