Kallin
Of Australian Aboriginal origin, meaning "boomerang" or "returning".
Name Census estimates that about 198 living Americans carry the first name Kallin. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Kallin today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kallin births was 2011 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kallin. 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 Kallin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
198
~ 1 in 1,731,083 Americans
Peak year
2011
19 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,338
Tracked since 1989
Census
Kallin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 263 people with the first name Kallin, which placed it at #32,158 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
#32,158
National first-name rank
People counted
263
263 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kallin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kallin is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Kallin 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 Kallin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.1% · 195
- Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 21
- Two or more races7.6% · 20
- Black or African American5.7% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Kallin
Kallin leans heavily male at 88.0% of total registrations, but 24 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kallin as a male name
- Ranked #9,338 in 2023
- 8 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2011 (19 births)
Kallin as a female name
- Ranked #14,646 in 2007
- 7 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1999 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kallin on both sides of the split. Of the 260 people counted with this name, 174 were male (66.9%) and 86 were female (33.1%).
Popularity
Kallin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kallin 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 92 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
Kallin 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 Kallin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kallin
The name Kallin is of Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old Norse word "karl" which means "man" or "warrior." It is believed to have emerged during the Viking era, between the 8th and 11th centuries AD, when the Norse people were known for their exploration and conquests across Europe and beyond.
In its earliest recorded form, the name was spelled "Karlin" or "Karlinn," and it was commonly used as a masculine given name among the Norse tribes, particularly in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The name held connotations of strength, courage, and masculinity, reflecting the warrior culture of the Vikings.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kallin can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of literary works that recount the lives and adventures of Scandinavian settlers in Iceland during the 9th and 10th centuries. The Saga of Gisli Sursson, written in the 13th century, mentions a character named Kallin, though details about his life and significance are scarce.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Kallin continued to be used in Scandinavian countries, with some variations in spelling and pronunciation. One notable figure was Kallin Nilsson, a Swedish military commander who lived in the 15th century and played a significant role in the Swedish-Danish conflicts of the time.
In the 16th century, a Norwegian explorer named Kallin Haugiansson became one of the first Europeans to venture into the Arctic regions, contributing to the exploration and mapping of the northern territories.
During the 17th century, the name gained popularity in Finland, which had been part of the Swedish empire for several centuries. One prominent individual bearing the name was Kallin Ståhlhandske, a Finnish clergyman and author who lived from 1635 to 1703 and wrote extensively on religious and philosophical topics.
As the Scandinavian influence spread across Europe, the name Kallin also found its way into other cultures and languages. In the 19th century, a German-born American artist named Kallin Wutscher (1824-1890) gained recognition for his landscape paintings, particularly those depicting the American West.
While the name Kallin is not as common today as it once was in Scandinavian countries, it has maintained a presence in various parts of the world, carrying with it a rich heritage and a connection to the courageous spirit of the Viking age.
People
Kallin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kallin 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
Kallin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kallin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 198 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kallin 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 1,731,083 US residents.
Is Kallin a common name?
We classify Kallin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 200 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kallin most popular?
The single biggest year for Kallin was 2011, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kallin 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 Kallin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 263 people with the name Kallin, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,158 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 Kallin 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 Kallin?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kallin on both sides of the split. Of the 260 people counted with this name, 174 were male (66.9%) and 86 were female (33.1%). 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 Kallin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kallin is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Kallin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kallin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (195 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 Kallin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kallin a male name?
Yes, 88.0% of people registered as Kallin 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 Kallin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kallin 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 Kallin 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 Americans are named Kallin?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Kallin at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.