Kanaan
Of Arabic origin, meaning "The Land of Canaan" or "The Promised Land".
Name Census estimates that about 1,134 living Americans carry the first name Kanaan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kanaan today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kanaan births was 2018 (87 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kanaan. 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 Kanaan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kanaan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 302,253 Americans
Peak year
2018
87 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,192
Tracked since 1990
Census
Kanaan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 731 people with the first name Kanaan, which placed it at #15,661 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
#15,661
National first-name rank
People counted
731
731 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kanaan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kanaan is White at 48.6%. The next largest groups are Black (28.3%) and Two or More Races (12.3%). 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 Kanaan 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 Kanaan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.6% · 355
- Black or African American28.3% · 207
- Two or more races12.3% · 90
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 51
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 11
Popularity
Kanaan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kanaan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 491 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kanaan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kanaan 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 Kanaan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kanaans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Kanaan, while Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kanaan
The name Kanaan has its origins in the ancient Semitic languages and is derived from the word "Kna'an," which means "lowland" or "flat land." It refers to the region that was once known as Canaan, a historical area that encompassed modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and parts of Syria and Jordan.
The name Kanaan is mentioned in various ancient texts, including the Hebrew Bible, where it is associated with the Promised Land given to the Israelites. In the Book of Genesis, Canaan is described as the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah, and the land of Canaan is referred to as the place where the Israelites settled after their exodus from Egypt.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kanaan can be found in the Amarna Letters, a collection of diplomatic correspondence from the 14th century BCE between the Pharaohs of Egypt and their vassals in Canaan. These letters mention individuals with names derived from the word "Kna'an," suggesting that the name was in use during this time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kanaan. One of the earliest recorded was Kanaan ibn al-Mu'tazz, an Arab poet who lived in the 9th century CE and was known for his skillful use of language and imagery.
Another famous bearer of the name was Kanaan Makiya, an Iraqi author and academic who was born in 1949. He is best known for his book "Republic of Fear," which provided a critical analysis of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.
In the realm of sports, Kanaan Al-Bahrani was a Bahraini footballer who played as a defender for the Bahrain national team in the 1990s and early 2000s. He was part of the team that won the Gulf Cup in 1998 and the Arab Nations Cup in 2002.
Kanaan Kattan was a Palestinian artist and writer who was born in 1928 in Bethlehem. He is renowned for his contributions to Palestinian literature and his depictions of life in the region through his paintings and writings.
Finally, Kanaan Trimeche was a Tunisian lawyer and human rights activist who played a significant role in the country's independence movement in the 1950s. He served as the Secretary-General of the Tunisian Human Rights League and was a vocal advocate for democratic reforms.
People
Kanaan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kanaan 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
Kanaan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kanaan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,134 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kanaan 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 302,253 US residents.
Is Kanaan a common name?
We classify Kanaan as "Rare". It ranks above 90.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,144 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kanaan most popular?
The single biggest year for Kanaan was 2018, when 87 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kanaan is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kanaan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 731 people with the name Kanaan, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,661 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 Kanaan 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 Kanaan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kanaan leans strongly male. 693 people counted with this name were male (94.8%), compared with 38 female bearers (5.2%). 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 Kanaan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kanaan is White at 48.6%. The next largest groups are Black (28.3%) and Two or More Races (12.3%). 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 Kanaan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kanaan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.6% (355 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 Kanaan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kanaan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kanaan 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 Kanaan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kanaan 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 Kanaan 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 Kanaan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.