Kaidan
Masculine Japanese name meaning "story" or "narrative".
Name Census estimates that about 1,180 living Americans carry the first name Kaidan. It is a predominantly male name (94.0% of registrations). The average person named Kaidan today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaidan births was 2014 (83 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaidan. 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 Kaidan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kaidan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 290,470 Americans
Peak year
2014
83 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,133
Tracked since 2000
Census
Kaidan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 943 people with the first name Kaidan, which placed it at #12,972 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
#12,972
National first-name rank
People counted
943
943 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaidan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaidan is White at 53.9%. The next largest groups are Black (19.0%) and Hispanic (11.9%). 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 Kaidan 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 Kaidan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.9% · 508
- Black or African American19.0% · 179
- Hispanic or Latino11.9% · 112
- Two or more races11.3% · 107
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Kaidan
Kaidan leans heavily male at 94.0% of total registrations, but 72 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kaidan as a male name
- Ranked #5,133 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (77 births)
Kaidan as a female name
- Ranked #12,162 in 2017
- 8 female births in 2017
- Peak: 2008 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaidan leans strongly male. 851 people counted with this name were male (90.1%), compared with 94 female bearers (9.9%).
Popularity
Kaidan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaidan from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 621 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
Kaidan 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 Kaidan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaidans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Kaidan, while Ohio, Illinois, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaidan
The name Kaidan has its origins in Japanese culture and is believed to have derived from the Japanese word "kaidanshi," which means "storyteller" or "narrator." This suggests that the name may have been associated with individuals who were skilled in the art of storytelling or oral traditions.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kaidan can be traced back to the late 16th century, during the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan. It is thought that the name gained popularity among samurai families and those involved in the literary arts during this era.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Kaidan Nobunaga, a renowned Japanese writer and scholar who lived from 1555 to 1614. He is best known for his contributions to the development of the Japanese literary style known as "bungo," which was heavily influenced by classical Chinese literature.
Another notable figure with the name Kaidan was Kaidan Tokugawa, a prominent daimyo (feudal lord) who lived from 1592 to 1653. He was a member of the powerful Tokugawa clan and played a significant role in the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868.
In the realm of Japanese Buddhism, there was a renowned Zen Buddhist monk named Kaidan Dogen (1200-1253). He is regarded as the founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism in Japan and is revered for his teachings and writings, which had a profound impact on the development of Zen philosophy and practice.
During the Edo period (1603-1868), the name Kaidan gained further popularity among Japanese artists and writers. One such figure was Kaidan Hokusai (1760-1849), widely recognized as one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of all time. His famous woodblock print series, "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," is considered a masterpiece of Japanese art.
Another noteworthy individual with the name Kaidan was Kaidan Basho (1644-1694), a revered Japanese poet who is regarded as the master of haiku and one of the greatest poets in Japanese literature. His works, such as "Oku no Hosomichi" (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), have had a lasting influence on Japanese poetry and culture.
While the name Kaidan has its roots in Japanese culture, it has also gained recognition and popularity in other parts of the world, particularly among those with an interest in Japanese literature, art, and history.
People
Kaidan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaidan 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
Kaidan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaidan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,180 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaidan 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 290,470 US residents.
Is Kaidan a common name?
We classify Kaidan as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,191 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaidan most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaidan was 2014, when 83 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaidan is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kaidan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 943 people with the name Kaidan, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,972 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 Kaidan 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 Kaidan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kaidan leans strongly male. 851 people counted with this name were male (90.1%), compared with 94 female bearers (9.9%). 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 Kaidan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaidan is White at 53.9%. The next largest groups are Black (19.0%) and Hispanic (11.9%). 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 Kaidan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kaidan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.9% (508 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 Kaidan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaidan a male name?
Yes, 94.0% of people registered as Kaidan 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 Kaidan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaidan 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 Kaidan 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 are named Kaidan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.