Kaulder
A name of Celtic origin possibly meaning "from Caulder", a place name.
Name Census estimates that about 161 living Americans carry the first name Kaulder. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kaulder today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaulder births was 2016 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaulder. 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
161
~ 1 in 2,128,909 Americans
Peak year
2016
32 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,634
Tracked since 2016
Popularity
Kaulder: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaulder from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 84 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
Kaulder 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 Kaulder during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaulders live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaulder
The given name Kaulder is believed to have its origins in the ancient Germanic language family, dating back to the early medieval period around the 5th to 8th centuries AD. It is likely derived from the Proto-Germanic root words "kald" or "kalt," meaning "cold," and the suffix "-er," indicating a person or thing associated with the root word. This suggests that the name Kaulder may have originally referred to someone living in a cold or northern region.
The name's earliest recorded usage is found in various Germanic texts and chronicles from the 7th and 8th centuries, where it appears as a personal name or a place name. One notable example is the Kaulder Forest, a heavily wooded area in what is now northern Germany, mentioned in the Annales Regni Francorum (Annals of the Frankish Kingdom) from the 9th century.
In the 10th century, a Frankish nobleman named Kaulder von Mainz (Kaulder of Mainz) is recorded as having participated in the Holy Roman Empire's campaigns against the Magyars (Hungarians) in central Europe. He is mentioned in several contemporary chronicles, including the Annales Quedlinburgenses (Annals of Quedlinburg).
During the High Middle Ages, from the 11th to 13th centuries, the name Kaulder appears to have been particularly popular among Germanic nobility and the knightly class. One notable figure was Kaulder von Staufenberg, a German knight and crusader who accompanied Emperor Frederick Barbarossa on the Third Crusade (1189–1192). He is mentioned in several accounts of the crusade, including the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi (Itinerary of the Pilgrims and the Deeds of King Richard) by Richard of Devizes.
In the 14th century, a Flemish scholar and theologian named Kaulder van Brugge (Kaulder of Bruges) gained recognition for his writings on moral philosophy and his involvement in the religious debates of the time. His works, including the treatise De Virtutibus (On Virtues), were widely circulated in medieval Europe.
The name Kaulder also appears in various literary works from the late medieval and Renaissance periods, such as the epic poem Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Nibelungen Ring) by the German poet and writer Kaulder von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–c. 1230), who is considered one of the greatest lyric poets of the Middle High German period.
People
Kaulder + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaulder 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
Kaulder: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaulder?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 161 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaulder 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 2,128,909 US residents.
Is Kaulder a common name?
We classify Kaulder as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 162 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaulder most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaulder was 2016, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaulder is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Kaulder in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaulder a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaulder 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 Kaulder still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaulder 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 Kaulder 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How common is the name Kaulder?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.