Kasson
A masculine name possibly derived from the Hebrew name "Cohen", meaning "priest".
Name Census estimates that about 110 living Americans carry the first name Kasson. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kasson today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kasson births was 2007 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kasson. 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.
People living today
110
~ 1 in 3,115,949 Americans
Peak year
2007
13 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,534
Tracked since 1991
Census
Kasson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 137 people with the first name Kasson, which placed it at #47,543 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
#47,543
National first-name rank
People counted
137
137 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kasson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kasson is White at 44.5%. The next largest groups are Black (43.1%) and Hispanic (5.1%). 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 Kasson 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 Kasson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.5% · 61
- Black or African American43.1% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 7
- Two or more races3.6% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 1
Popularity
Kasson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kasson from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 47 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kasson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kasson 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 Kasson 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 Kasson
The name Kasson is believed to have originated in the Middle Ages, with its roots traced back to the Old Norse language. The name is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word "kass," which means "curly-haired" or "kinky-haired." This suggests that the name was initially given to individuals with distinctive curly or kinky hair.
During the Viking Age, between the 8th and 11th centuries, the name Kasson may have been used by Norse settlers in various regions of Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and parts of the British Isles. However, there are no known historical records or ancient texts that explicitly mention the name Kasson from this period.
The earliest documented use of the name Kasson can be traced back to the late 12th century, when a man named Kasson de Vere was recorded in the Domesday Book, a survey of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. De Vere was a Norman nobleman who held lands in Essex, England.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kasson. One of the earliest recorded was Kasson Fremonger, an English merchant and explorer who was born in 1565 and is believed to have been one of the first Europeans to establish trade relations with the Mughal Empire in India.
In the 19th century, John Kasson (1822-1910) was an American politician and diplomat who served as a United States Congressman from Iowa and later as the U.S. Minister to Austria-Hungary and Spain. He was also a prominent advocate for the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution.
Another notable figure was Kasson Pulaski (1853-1917), an American author and journalist who wrote extensively about the American Civil War and was a vocal advocate for the preservation of historic battlefields and monuments.
In more recent times, Kasson Crooker (1932-2018) was an American actor and playwright best known for his roles in various Broadway productions and for founding the prestigious Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles.
Lastly, Kasson Gruneberg (1942-2021) was a British memory expert and author, renowned for his research on memory techniques and his contributions to the field of mnemonics.
People
Kasson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kasson 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
Kasson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kasson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 110 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kasson 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 3,115,949 US residents.
Is Kasson a common name?
We classify Kasson as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 111 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kasson most popular?
The single biggest year for Kasson was 2007, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kasson is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kasson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 137 people with the name Kasson, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #47,543 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 Kasson 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 Kasson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kasson leans strongly male. 126 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 5 female bearers (3.8%). 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 Kasson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kasson is White at 44.5%. The next largest groups are Black (43.1%) and Hispanic (5.1%). 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 Kasson most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kasson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.5% (61 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 Kasson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kasson a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kasson 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 Kasson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kasson 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 Kasson 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 Kasson?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Kasson on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.