Kase
A masculine name derived from the Japanese word for "journey" or "path".
Name Census estimates that about 4,617 living Americans carry the first name Kase. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kase today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kase births was 2018 (433 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kase. 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 Kase with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kase is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.6K
~ 1 in 74,237 Americans
Peak year
2018
433 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#964
Tracked since 1983
Census
Kase in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,173 people with the first name Kase, which placed it at #5,427 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
#5,427
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,173 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kase
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kase is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Black (7.4%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Kase 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 Kase at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.7% · 2,560
- Black or African American7.4% · 236
- Two or more races4.8% · 152
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 149
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 32
Gender
Gender distribution for Kase
Out of the 4,656 babies given the name Kase since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Kase as a male name
- Ranked #964 in 2024
- 233 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (433 births)
Kase as a female name
- Ranked #13,101 in 2019
- 7 female births in 2019
- Peak: 2019 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kase leans strongly male. 3,100 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 72 female bearers (2.3%).
Popularity
Kase: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kase from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,708 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kase remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kase 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 Kase during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kases live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kase, while Montana, Idaho, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 94 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kase
The name Kase is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the ancient Scandinavian people during the Viking Age. The name likely derives from the Old Norse word "kas," which means "case" or "box." It's possible that the name was initially used as a nickname or occupational name for someone who made or worked with cases or boxes.
In the early medieval period, the name Kase was primarily found in Scandinavia, particularly in present-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. As the Vikings explored and settled in various parts of Europe, the name may have spread to other regions, such as the British Isles and parts of mainland Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kase can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of historical narratives written in the 13th and 14th centuries. These sagas often mentioned the names of individuals who lived during the Viking Age, suggesting that the name Kase was in use among the Norse people as early as the 9th or 10th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kase. One of the earliest recorded figures was Kase Grimsson, a Norwegian chieftain and landowner who lived in the late 10th century. Another notable figure was Kase Thorvaldsson, a Viking explorer and settler who is believed to have been among the first Europeans to reach North America, circa 1000 CE.
In the later medieval period, the name Kase appeared in various historical records from Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. For instance, Kase Eriksson was a Swedish knight who fought in the Northern Crusades in the 13th century. Kase Jönsson was a Danish merchant and ship owner who lived in the 15th century and was involved in the Hanseatic League.
Moving into the early modern period, Kase Olafsson was a Norwegian sea captain and explorer who sailed for the Danish-Norwegian navy in the 17th century. He is known for his explorations of the Arctic regions and for mapping parts of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
While the name Kase has been relatively rare throughout history, it has persisted in Scandinavia and other parts of Northern Europe. Some other notable individuals who bore this name include Kase Nilsson, a Swedish farmer and landowner in the 18th century, and Kase Johansson, a Norwegian artist and painter in the 19th century.
People
Kase + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kase 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
Kase: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kase?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,617 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kase 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 74,237 US residents.
Is Kase a common name?
We classify Kase as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,656 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kase most popular?
The single biggest year for Kase was 2018, when 433 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kase is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kase in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,173 people with the name Kase, or 1.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,427 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 Kase 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 Kase?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kase leans strongly male. 3,100 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 72 female bearers (2.3%). 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 Kase?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kase is White at 80.7%. The next largest groups are Black (7.4%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Kase most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kase in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.7% (2,560 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 Kase in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kase a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Kase 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 Kase still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kase 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 Kase 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 Kase?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.