Kierstin
A feminine given name of English origin meaning "Christ's follower".
Name Census estimates that about 3,174 living Americans carry the first name Kierstin. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kierstin today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kierstin births was 2005 (174 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kierstin. 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.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 107,988 Americans
Peak year
2005
174 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2023 SSA rank
#16,440
Tracked since 1966
Census
Kierstin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,829 people with the first name Kierstin, which placed it at #5,860 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
#5,860
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,829 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kierstin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kierstin is White at 79.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.3%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Kierstin 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 Kierstin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.4% · 2,245
- Black or African American9.3% · 264
- Two or more races5.5% · 155
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 119
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 21
Popularity
Kierstin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kierstin from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,243 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
Kierstin 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 Kierstin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kierstins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Kierstin, while Wisconsin, Utah, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kierstin
The name Kierstin is a Scandinavian variation of the name Kirsten, which has its origins in the Old Norse name Kristin. This name ultimately derives from the Greek name Christos, meaning "anointed" or "the anointed one," a reference to Jesus Christ. The name was introduced to Scandinavia through Christianity and gained popularity during the Middle Ages.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled as Kristin or Kristina. The spelling Kierstin emerged as a regional variation, particularly in parts of Norway and Sweden. This spelling likely arose due to linguistic shifts and regional dialects over time.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kierstin can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of stories and historical accounts from the late 12th to the early 14th century. These sagas often mentioned individuals with the name Kristin or its variants.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Kierstin or its variations. One example is Kierstin Flagstad (1895-1962), a renowned Norwegian opera singer who was celebrated for her interpretations of Wagner's operas.
Another notable Kierstin was Kierstin Dunkars (1628-1703), a Swedish writer and poet who was one of the first female writers in Sweden to publish her works. Her collection of poems, titled "Venerid," was published in 1651.
In the religious realm, Kierstin Gjertsen (1634-1688) was a Norwegian Lutheran pastor's wife who is remembered for her diary, which provided valuable insights into the lives of clergymen and their families in 17th-century Norway.
Kierstin Svendsen (1826-1899) was a Norwegian businesswoman and landowner who played a significant role in the development of the whaling industry in her hometown of Tromsø.
Lastly, Kierstin Stensrud (1937-2019) was a Norwegian politician and member of the Labour Party who served as a member of the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) for several terms between 1977 and 1993.
While the name Kierstin has its roots in Scandinavia, it has been adopted and used in various parts of the world, particularly in countries with strong Scandinavian cultural influences or immigration.
People
Kierstin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kierstin 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
Kierstin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kierstin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,174 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kierstin 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 107,988 US residents.
Is Kierstin a common name?
We classify Kierstin as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,270 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kierstin most popular?
The single biggest year for Kierstin was 2005, when 174 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kierstin is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kierstin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,829 people with the name Kierstin, or 0.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,860 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 Kierstin 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 Kierstin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kierstin appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,831 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kierstin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kierstin is White at 79.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.3%) and Two or More Races (5.5%). 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 Kierstin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kierstin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.4% (2,245 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 Kierstin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kierstin a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kierstin 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 Kierstin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kierstin 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 Kierstin 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 Kierstin?
You can see how many people have the name Kierstin on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.