Cayman
Small reptile found in the Caribbean, derived from Spanish indigenous term.
Name Census estimates that about 1,232 living Americans carry the first name Cayman. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 79.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Cayman today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cayman births was 2006 (82 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cayman. 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 Cayman with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 278,210 Americans
Peak year
2006
82 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,260
Tracked since 1985
Census
Cayman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,122 people with the first name Cayman, which placed it at #11,421 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
#11,421
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,122 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cayman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cayman is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.1%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Cayman 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 Cayman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.3% · 789
- Black or African American13.1% · 147
- Two or more races8.7% · 98
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 62
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Cayman
Cayman is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,250 total registrations, 994 (79.5%) were male and 256 (20.5%) were female.
Cayman as a male name
- Ranked #5,260 in 2024
- 18 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (55 births)
Cayman as a female name
- Ranked #13,821 in 2021
- 6 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2006 (27 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cayman on both sides of the split. Of the 1,119 people counted with this name, 845 were male (75.5%) and 274 were female (24.5%).
Popularity
Cayman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cayman from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 533 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
Cayman 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 Cayman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Caymans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Cayman, while Tennessee, Louisiana, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cayman
The name Cayman has its origins in the Taíno language, spoken by the indigenous people of the Caribbean. The word "caimán" in Taíno referred to a type of crocodilian, specifically the American crocodile or the caiman. The name likely originated in the 15th or 16th century, during the time of European exploration and colonization of the Caribbean region.
The name is derived from the Spanish word "caimán," which itself comes from the Taíno word "caimán." The Spanish colonial presence in the Caribbean played a significant role in the spread and adoption of the name across various cultures and regions.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Cayman can be found in the accounts of Spanish explorers and colonists who encountered the islands now known as the Cayman Islands. These islands were named after the abundance of crocodiles or caimans found there.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Cayman. One such person was Cayman Brac, a Taíno chief who resided on the island that now bears his name in the Cayman Islands. His exact dates of birth and death are unknown, but he lived during the period of Spanish colonization in the 16th century.
Another prominent figure with the name Cayman was Cayman Vaz, a Portuguese explorer and navigator who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. He was known for his involvement in the exploration and mapping of the Caribbean region.
In the realm of literature, Cayman was the name of a character in the novel "The White Witch of Rosehall" by Herbert G. de Lisser, published in 1929. The novel, set in Jamaica, explored themes of slavery, rebellion, and the supernatural.
Moving into more recent times, Cayman Naib was a Pakistani cricketer who played for the national team in the 1970s and 1980s. He was born in 1952 and had a successful career as a right-arm off-break bowler.
Another notable figure named Cayman was Cayman Brutus, a Haitian-American artist and painter known for his vibrant and colorful works depicting Haitian culture and life. He was born in 1980 and continues to create and exhibit his artwork internationally.
It's worth noting that while the name Cayman has its roots in the Taíno language and the Caribbean region, it has since been adopted and used in various cultures and contexts around the world, although its popularity remains relatively limited.
People
Cayman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cayman 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
Cayman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cayman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,232 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cayman 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 278,210 US residents.
Is Cayman a common name?
We classify Cayman as "Rare". It ranks above 91.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,250 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cayman most popular?
The single biggest year for Cayman was 2006, when 82 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cayman is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cayman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,122 people with the name Cayman, or 0.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,421 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 Cayman 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 Cayman?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cayman on both sides of the split. Of the 1,119 people counted with this name, 845 were male (75.5%) and 274 were female (24.5%). 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 Cayman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cayman is White at 70.3%. The next largest groups are Black (13.1%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Cayman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cayman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.3% (789 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 Cayman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cayman a male name?
Yes, 79.5% of people registered as Cayman 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 Cayman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cayman 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 Cayman 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 have Cayman as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Cayman, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.