Christiaan
A masculine given name of Dutch origin meaning "Christian, follower of Christ".
Name Census estimates that about 838 living Americans carry the first name Christiaan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Christiaan today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Christiaan births was 1968 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Christiaan. 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 Christiaan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
838
~ 1 in 409,015 Americans
Peak year
1968
43 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,056
Tracked since 1964
Census
Christiaan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,055 people with the first name Christiaan, which placed it at #11,962 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
#11,962
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,055 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Christiaan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Christiaan is White at 65.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.9%) and Black (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 Christiaan 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 Christiaan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.9% · 695
- Two or more races13.9% · 147
- Black or African American10.0% · 106
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 7
Popularity
Christiaan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Christiaan from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 233 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Christiaan 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 Christiaan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Christiaans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Christiaan, while Pennsylvania, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Christiaan
The name Christiaan is derived from the Greek name Χριστιανός (Christianos), which means "a Christian" or "follower of Christ". It ultimately traces its roots back to the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), meaning "the anointed one", which is a translation of the Hebrew word משיח (Mashiach).
The name Christiaan is closely associated with Christianity and is particularly prevalent in regions where Christianity has had a strong historical presence, such as Europe and parts of the Middle East. It gained widespread usage during the early centuries of Christianity as the religion spread across the Roman Empire and beyond.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Christiaan can be found in the writings of the Church Fathers, who were influential Christian theologians and authors from the late 1st to the 8th century AD. For example, the name appears in the works of Tertullian, a prolific early Christian author from Carthage, who lived around 155-240 AD.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Christiaan. One of the most famous was Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, who lived from 1629 to 1695. He made significant contributions to the fields of optics, mechanics, and timekeeping, and is credited with the invention of the pendulum clock.
Another prominent figure was Christiaan Eijkman, a Dutch physician and pathologist who lived from 1858 to 1930. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for his discovery of the antineuritic vitamin, later known as vitamin B1, and its role in preventing beriberi.
Christiaan Barnard, a South African cardiac surgeon, gained international recognition in 1967 for performing the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant. He lived from 1922 to 2001 and his pioneering work in cardiac surgery paved the way for the development of heart transplantation as a life-saving procedure.
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch scholar and orientalist who lived from 1857 to 1936, was renowned for his expertise in Islamic studies and his work on the Acehnese language and culture. He played a significant role in shaping Dutch colonial policies in the East Indies (now Indonesia).
Christiaan Neethling Barnard, a South African novelist and playwright who lived from 1936 to 2022, was known for his works that explored themes of apartheid, racism, and social injustice in South Africa. His novels, such as "Mahala" and "Gallows Gecko", received critical acclaim and brought attention to the struggles of the country's oppressed communities.
People
Christiaan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Christiaan 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
Christiaan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Christiaan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 838 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Christiaan 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 409,015 US residents.
Is Christiaan a common name?
We classify Christiaan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 879 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Christiaan most popular?
The single biggest year for Christiaan was 1968, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Christiaan is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Christiaan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,055 people with the name Christiaan, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,962 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 Christiaan 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 Christiaan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Christiaan leans strongly male. 1,023 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 36 female bearers (3.4%). 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 Christiaan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Christiaan is White at 65.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.9%) and Black (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 Christiaan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Christiaan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.9% (695 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 Christiaan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Christiaan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Christiaan 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 Christiaan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Christiaan 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 Christiaan 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 share the name Christiaan?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.