Kane
A masculine name of Hawaiian origin meaning "a man of strength and authority".
Name Census estimates that about 18,565 living Americans carry the first name Kane. It sits at #431 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kane today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kane births was 2018 (1,054 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kane. 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 Kane with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kane 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
19K
~ 1 in 18,462 Americans
Peak year
2018
1,054 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#431
Tracked since 1953
Census
Kane in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,418 people with the first name Kane, which placed it at #2,031 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
#2,031
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,418 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kane
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kane is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.2%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Kane 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 Kane at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.5% · 9,053
- Hispanic or Latino12.2% · 1,638
- Two or more races8.2% · 1,102
- Black or African American6.4% · 856
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 571
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 198
Gender
Gender distribution for Kane
Out of the 18,854 babies given the name Kane since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Kane as a male name
- Ranked #431 in 2024
- 731 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (1,054 births)
Kane as a female name
- Ranked #16,458 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1985 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kane leans strongly male. 13,175 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 236 female bearers (1.8%).
Popularity
Kane: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kane from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,038 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kane remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kane 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 Kane during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kanes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kane, while District of Columbia, Alaska, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 339 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kane
The name Kane has its origins traced back to the Hawaiian language and culture. It is derived from the Hawaiian word "kane," which means "man" or "male." The name is believed to have been in use among the indigenous people of Hawaii for centuries before the arrival of European explorers and settlers.
In Hawaiian mythology, Kane was the name of one of the four major gods, representing the elemental force of life and creation. The god Kane was revered as the creator of the world and the source of all life. This association with a powerful deity likely contributed to the name's popularity and significance within Hawaiian culture.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Kane can be found in the ancient Hawaiian chants and oral traditions, which were passed down through generations. These chants often invoked the names of the Hawaiian gods, including Kane, and celebrated their roles in shaping the islands and the lives of the people.
While the name Kane has deep roots in Hawaiian culture, it has also been adopted and used in various parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries. Some notable historical figures with the name Kane include:
1. Robert John Kane (1842-1917), an American Civil War soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor.
2. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857), an American explorer who led two expeditions to the Arctic regions in search of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition.
3. Bob Kane (1915-1998), an American comic book writer and artist best known as the creator of the superhero Batman.
4. Citizen Kane (1941), the renowned film directed by Orson Welles, although the name "Kane" in this context was not a given name but rather a surname.
5. Kane Tanaka (born 1903), a Japanese supercentenarian who is currently the oldest living person in the world as of 2023.
It is worth noting that while the name Kane has Hawaiian origins, its usage has transcended cultural boundaries, and it has been adopted by individuals from various backgrounds, particularly in recent times. The name's association with strength, masculinity, and the natural world has likely contributed to its enduring appeal across different cultures.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Kane
People
Kane + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kane 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
Kane: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kane?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18,565 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kane 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 18,462 US residents.
Is Kane a common name?
We classify Kane as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,854 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kane most popular?
The single biggest year for Kane was 2018, when 1,054 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kane 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 Kane in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,418 people with the name Kane, or 4.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,031 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 Kane 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 Kane?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kane leans strongly male. 13,175 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 236 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Kane?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kane is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.2%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Kane most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kane in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.5% (9,053 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 Kane in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kane a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Kane 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 Kane still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kane 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 Kane 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 the name Kane?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Kane, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.