Kerrin
Variant spelling of Kieran, an Irish name meaning "little dark one".
Name Census estimates that about 921 living Americans carry the first name Kerrin. It is a predominantly female name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Kerrin today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kerrin births was 1992 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kerrin. 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 Kerrin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
921
~ 1 in 372,155 Americans
Peak year
1992
43 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
1985 SSA rank
#7,096
Tracked since 1950
Census
Kerrin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,040 people with the first name Kerrin, which placed it at #12,092 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
#12,092
National first-name rank
People counted
1.0K
1,040 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kerrin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kerrin is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (2.7%). 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 Kerrin 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 Kerrin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.0% · 884
- Black or African American8.5% · 88
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 28
- Two or more races2.2% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Kerrin
Out of the 1,014 babies given the name Kerrin since 1880, 99.0% 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.
Kerrin as a male name
- Ranked #7,096 in 1985
- 5 male births in 1985
- Peak: 1967 (5 births)
Kerrin as a female name
- Ranked #16,251 in 2009
- 6 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1992 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kerrin leans strongly female. 955 people counted with this name were female (91.6%), compared with 88 male bearers (8.4%).
Popularity
Kerrin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kerrin from the 1950s through to the 2000s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 236 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Kerrin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kerrin 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 Kerrin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kerrins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Kerrin, while California, Rhode Island, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 62 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kerrin
The name Kerrin is an anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Ciarán, which has its origins in the ancient Celtic language. It is derived from the word "ciar," meaning "black" or "dark-featured." The name was likely originally a descriptive nickname referring to a person's physical appearance.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Ciarán was an Irish saint who lived in the 6th century AD. St. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise was a renowned monastic scholar and founder of the famous Clonmacnoise monastery in County Offaly, Ireland. He is considered one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and is venerated in the Catholic Church.
In the 9th century, another notable figure named Ciarán was Ciarán of Belach Dúin, an Irish abbot and scholar who wrote several important works on canon law and monastic rules. His writings were influential in the development of the Céli Dé religious reform movement.
During the Middle Ages, the name Ciarán was particularly popular among the Irish nobility and ruling classes. One notable example is Ciarán Ua Cuinn, a 12th-century king of Munster, a historic province in southern Ireland.
As the name spread beyond Ireland, it underwent various spelling variations, including Kerrin, Kerren, and Kerran. In the late 16th century, a Scottish nobleman named Kerrin Muir was recorded as a prominent landowner in the county of Ayrshire.
In more recent times, one of the most famous bearers of the name Kerrin was Kerrin Michael Rediker, an American historian and professor known for his influential works on maritime history and the Atlantic slave trade. He was born in 1951 and has authored several critically acclaimed books, including "The Slave Ship: A Human History" and "Villains of All Nations."
Other notable people named Kerrin include Kerrin Sheldon, an Australian cricketer who played domestic cricket for South Australia in the 1980s and 1990s, and Kerrin Binnie, a Canadian actress known for her roles in television series like "Heartland" and "When Calls the Heart."
People
Kerrin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kerrin 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
Kerrin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kerrin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 921 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kerrin 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 372,155 US residents.
Is Kerrin a common name?
We classify Kerrin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,014 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kerrin most popular?
The single biggest year for Kerrin was 1992, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kerrin is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kerrin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,040 people with the name Kerrin, or 0.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,092 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 Kerrin 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 Kerrin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kerrin leans strongly female. 955 people counted with this name were female (91.6%), compared with 88 male bearers (8.4%). 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 Kerrin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kerrin is White at 85.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (2.7%). 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 Kerrin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kerrin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.0% (884 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 Kerrin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kerrin a female name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Kerrin 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 Kerrin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kerrin 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 Kerrin 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 Kerrin?
Find out how many Americans are named Kerrin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.