Kailan
Tagalog name typically spelled "Caylan", variously meaning "when" or "what time".
Name Census estimates that about 1,067 living Americans carry the first name Kailan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 52.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Kailan today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kailan births was 2009 (58 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kailan. 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 Kailan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kailan sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Kailan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 321,232 Americans
Peak year
2009
58 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,887
Tracked since 1988
Census
Kailan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 788 people with the first name Kailan, which placed it at #14,825 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
#14,825
National first-name rank
People counted
788
788 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
32.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kailan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kailan is White at 32.9%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and Hispanic (17.8%). 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 Kailan 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 Kailan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White32.9% · 259
- Black or African American29.7% · 234
- Hispanic or Latino17.8% · 140
- Two or more races10.0% · 79
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.4% · 66
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Kailan
Kailan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,081 total registrations, 569 (52.6%) were male and 512 (47.4%) were female.
Kailan as a male name
- Ranked #2,887 in 2024
- 44 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (44 births)
Kailan as a female name
- Ranked #9,845 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (39 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kailan on both sides of the split. Of the 779 people counted with this name, 338 were male (43.4%) and 441 were female (56.6%).
Popularity
Kailan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kailan 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 364 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kailan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kailan 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 Kailan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kailans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kailan
The given name Kailan is believed to have originated from the Philippine languages of Tagalog and Ilocano. Its roots can be traced back to the pre-colonial era, before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines in the 16th century.
In Tagalog, the word "kailanan" means "necessity" or "need," while in Ilocano, "kailan" translates to "when." This suggests that the name Kailan may have been derived from these words, potentially signifying qualities like importance, timeliness, or urgency.
Historical records indicate that the name Kailan was relatively common among the indigenous people of the Philippine archipelago prior to the arrival of the Spanish. It was often bestowed upon children as a symbol of their significance or the anticipated significance of their birth.
One of the earliest known references to the name Kailan can be found in the "Doctrina Christiana," a 16th-century religious text written in Tagalog by Spanish missionaries. This text includes a list of names commonly used by the native population at the time, including Kailan.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kailan. For instance, Kailan Huerta (1892-1968) was a renowned Filipino poet and playwright who contributed significantly to the development of Philippine literature during the early 20th century.
Another prominent figure was Kailan Melchor (1905-1982), a Filipino politician and lawyer who served as a member of the Philippine House of Representatives and played a crucial role in the country's independence movement.
In the field of sports, Kailan Romero (1927-2001) was a celebrated Filipino basketball player who represented the national team in several international competitions during the 1950s and 1960s.
Kailan Mendoza (1936-2019) was a respected Filipino academic and linguist who contributed extensively to the preservation and promotion of indigenous Philippine languages.
Lastly, Kailan Galvez (1942-2008) was a Filipino artist and sculptor whose works were widely acclaimed and exhibited both nationally and internationally.
While the name Kailan may have evolved and taken on different meanings over time, its historical roots can be traced back to the rich cultural heritage of the Philippine islands, reflecting the importance and significance bestowed upon those who bore this name.
People
Kailan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kailan 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
Kailan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kailan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,067 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kailan 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 321,232 US residents.
Is Kailan a common name?
We classify Kailan as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,081 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kailan most popular?
The single biggest year for Kailan was 2009, when 58 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kailan is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kailan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 788 people with the name Kailan, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,825 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 Kailan 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 Kailan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kailan on both sides of the split. Of the 779 people counted with this name, 338 were male (43.4%) and 441 were female (56.6%). 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 Kailan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kailan is White at 32.9%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and Hispanic (17.8%). 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 Kailan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kailan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 32.9% (259 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 Kailan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kailan a male name?
Yes, 52.6% of people registered as Kailan 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 Kailan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kailan 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 Kailan 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 Kailan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.