Kasper
A masculine name of Persian origin meaning "treasurer" or "richly adorned".
Name Census estimates that about 1,231 living Americans carry the first name Kasper. It is a predominantly male name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Kasper today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kasper births was 2023 (96 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kasper. 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.
Key insights
- • Kasper is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 278,436 Americans
Peak year
2023
96 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,750
Tracked since 1912
Gender
Gender distribution for Kasper
Kasper leans heavily male at 98.5% of total registrations, but 20 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kasper as a male name
- Ranked #1,750 in 2024
- 94 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (94 births)
Kasper as a female name
- Ranked #14,264 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2021 (9 births)
Popularity
Kasper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kasper from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 443 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kasper 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 Kasper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaspers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Kasper, while Utah, North Carolina, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kasper
The name Kasper is derived from the Persian name Casper, which means "treasure bearer" or "bearer of treasures." It has its origins in the ancient Middle Persian language, and the name can be traced back to the Sasanian Empire of Persia, which ruled from the 3rd to the 7th century AD.
In the early Christian era, the name Casper became associated with one of the three biblical Magi or Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As a result, the name gained popularity among European Christians, particularly in German-speaking regions, where it evolved into the variant spelling Kasper.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kasper appears in the 14th century German folk tale "The Story of the Seven Swabians," which features a character named Kasper. This tale is believed to have originated in the region of Swabia, in present-day southwestern Germany.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kasper. One of the most famous was Caspar Melchior Balthazar, a 14th-century Benedictine monk and scholar from the German city of Trier. Another was Kasper Hauser, a German youth who lived in the early 19th century and claimed to have been raised in isolation, attracting significant public interest and speculation.
In the realm of arts and literature, Kasper is the name of a character in the classical German puppet theatre tradition known as the Kasperltheater. The name has also been used by several writers and artists, including the Norwegian playwright and poet Kasper Johansen (1836-1895) and the Danish painter Kasper Monrad (1858-1935).
Other notable individuals named Kasper include Kasper Schmeichel, a Danish professional footballer and goalkeeper who was born in 1986, and Kasper Bjørke, a Danish electronic music producer and DJ born in 1976.
People
Kasper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kasper 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
Kasper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kasper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,231 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kasper 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 278,436 US residents.
Is Kasper a common name?
We classify Kasper as "Rare". It ranks above 91.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,324 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kasper most popular?
The single biggest year for Kasper was 2023, when 96 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kasper is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Kasper a male name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Kasper 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.
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.