Caylen
A sweet and feminine name of Scottish origin meaning "slender, small."
Name Census estimates that about 1,004 living Americans carry the first name Caylen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 65.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Caylen today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Caylen births was 2010 (60 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Caylen. 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 Caylen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 341,389 Americans
Peak year
2010
60 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,834
Tracked since 1982
Census
Caylen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 854 people with the first name Caylen, which placed it at #13,954 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
#13,954
National first-name rank
People counted
854
854 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Caylen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caylen is White at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Black (30.0%) and Hispanic (7.5%). 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 Caylen 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 Caylen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.4% · 439
- Black or African American30.0% · 256
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 64
- Two or more races7.1% · 61
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Caylen
Caylen is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,020 total registrations, 357 (35.0%) were male and 663 (65.0%) were female.
Caylen as a male name
- Ranked #7,834 in 2024
- 10 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2013 (21 births)
Caylen as a female name
- Ranked #10,408 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (41 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Caylen on both sides of the split. Of the 853 people counted with this name, 278 were male (32.6%) and 575 were female (67.4%).
Popularity
Caylen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Caylen 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 363 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Caylen 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 Caylen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Caylens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Caylen, while Florida, California, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Caylen
The name Caylen is a modern variation of the name Callan, which is believed to have originated from the Old Irish Gaelic name "Colmán." This name was derived from the Celtic word "colm," meaning "dove." It was a popular name among early Irish Christians, who saw the dove as a symbol of peace and the Holy Spirit.
The name Colmán was first recorded in ancient Irish annals and manuscripts from the 5th century AD. One of the earliest documented individuals with this name was Saint Colmán of Dromore, who lived in the late 6th century and established a monastic school in County Down, Ireland.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Colmán remained prevalent in Ireland and Scotland, often anglicized as "Callan" or "Callum." One notable bearer of this name was Callan of Énlí, an Irish poet and scholar who lived in the 8th century and was renowned for his wisdom and learning.
As the name spread beyond its Celtic roots, it underwent various spelling variations, including "Calyn," "Cailin," and "Caylen." The latter spelling, Caylen, is a relatively modern form that emerged in the late 20th century, particularly in English-speaking countries.
Among the notable individuals named Caylen throughout history are Caylen Carroll, an American singer and songwriter born in 1996; Caylen Cotten, an American professional basketball player born in 1996; and Caylen Portis, an American basketball player born in 2000.
Additionally, there was Caylen Delgado, a Chilean footballer who played in the early 20th century, and Caylen Cullen, an Australian rules football player who was active in the 1930s.
While the name Caylen is a relatively recent variant, it carries with it the rich cultural heritage of its Celtic origins, symbolizing peace, gentleness, and a connection to the natural world.
People
Caylen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Caylen 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
Caylen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Caylen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,004 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Caylen 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 341,389 US residents.
Is Caylen a common name?
We classify Caylen as "Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,020 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Caylen most popular?
The single biggest year for Caylen was 2010, when 60 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Caylen 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 Caylen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 854 people with the name Caylen, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,954 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 Caylen 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 Caylen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Caylen on both sides of the split. Of the 853 people counted with this name, 278 were male (32.6%) and 575 were female (67.4%). 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 Caylen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caylen is White at 51.4%. The next largest groups are Black (30.0%) and Hispanic (7.5%). 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 Caylen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Caylen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.4% (439 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 Caylen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Caylen a female name?
Yes, 65.0% of people registered as Caylen 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 Caylen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Caylen 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 Caylen 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 common is the name Caylen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.