Kaelyn
A feminine name of Celtic origin meaning "freckled, fair or lovely".
Name Census estimates that about 15,286 living Americans carry the first name Kaelyn. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Kaelyn today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaelyn births was 2009 (1,006 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaelyn. 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 Kaelyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Kaelyn is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 82 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,423 Americans
Peak year
2009
1,006 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,636
Tracked since 1959
Census
Kaelyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,150 people with the first name Kaelyn, which placed it at #2,066 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
#2,066
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,150 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaelyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaelyn is White at 64.8%. The next largest groups are Black (11.7%) and Hispanic (11.4%). 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 Kaelyn 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 Kaelyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.8% · 8,520
- Black or African American11.7% · 1,540
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 1,498
- Two or more races7.0% · 918
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 571
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 103
Gender
Gender distribution for Kaelyn
Out of the 15,517 babies given the name Kaelyn since 1880, 99.5% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Kaelyn as a male name
- Ranked #13,174 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (13 births)
Kaelyn as a female name
- Ranked #1,636 in 2024
- 126 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (997 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,147 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Kaelyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaelyn from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6,484 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaelyn 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 Kaelyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaelyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Kaelyn, while Rhode Island, Alaska, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 295 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaelyn
The name Kaelyn originated in the English language, deriving from a combination of the Gaelic name Caelan, meaning "slender and fair," and the Irish name Aislinn, meaning "dream" or "vision." This name first emerged in the late 20th century as a feminine variant of the traditional Irish name Caelan.
Kaelyn's roots can be traced back to ancient Celtic cultures, where names were often imbued with symbolic meanings and reflected personal traits or aspirations. The name's connection to the concepts of beauty and dreams suggests a desire for grace, serenity, and the pursuit of one's aspirations.
While there are no direct historical references to the name Kaelyn in ancient texts or religious scriptures, its components, Caelan and Aislinn, have been documented in various Irish and Scottish records throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kaelyn can be found in the late 1970s, when it began to gain popularity in the United States and other English-speaking countries. Since then, several notable individuals have borne this name, including:
1. Kaelyn Keefe (born in 1990), an American former figure skater who competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics.
2. Kaelyn Willey (born in 1994), an American former artistic gymnast who participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
3. Kaelyn Betzler (born in 1996), an American professional soccer player who currently plays for the Houston Dash in the National Women's Soccer League.
4. Kaelyn Cabral (born in 1997), a Canadian artistic gymnast who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
5. Kaelyn Hoven (born in 2002), an American competitive swimmer who has won multiple national titles and set several age-group records.
While these individuals represent diverse fields, from sports to entertainment, their shared name serves as a reminder of the rich cultural heritage and symbolic meanings embodied in the name Kaelyn.
People
Kaelyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaelyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kaelyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaelyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,286 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaelyn 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 22,423 US residents.
Is Kaelyn a common name?
We classify Kaelyn as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,517 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaelyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaelyn was 2009, when 1,006 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaelyn is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaelyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,150 people with the name Kaelyn, or 4.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,066 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 Kaelyn 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 Kaelyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaelyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,147 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Kaelyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaelyn is White at 64.8%. The next largest groups are Black (11.7%) and Hispanic (11.4%). 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 Kaelyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kaelyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.8% (8,520 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 Kaelyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaelyn a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Kaelyn in the SSA data are female. 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 Kaelyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaelyn 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 Kaelyn 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 are called Kaelyn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.