Kayden
A masculine name of Celtic origin meaning "born from fire".
Name Census estimates that about 78,264 living Americans carry the first name Kayden. It sits at #125 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Kayden today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kayden births was 2014 (5,135 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kayden. 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 Kayden with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kayden is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
78K
~ 1 in 4,379 Americans
Peak year
2014
5,135 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#125
Tracked since 1989
Census
Kayden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 51,572 people with the first name Kayden, which placed it at #878 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
#878
National first-name rank
People counted
52K
51,572 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kayden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayden is White at 47.9%. The next largest groups are Black (25.3%) and Hispanic (13.1%). 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 Kayden 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 Kayden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.9% · 24,709
- Black or African American25.3% · 13,061
- Hispanic or Latino13.1% · 6,739
- Two or more races8.9% · 4,600
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 1,848
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 615
Gender
Gender distribution for Kayden
Kayden leans heavily male at 89.8% of total registrations, but 8,052 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kayden as a male name
- Ranked #125 in 2024
- 2,882 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (4,741 births)
Kayden as a female name
- Ranked #2,750 in 2024
- 62 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (824 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kayden leans strongly male. 44,722 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 6,853 female bearers (13.3%).
Popularity
Kayden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kayden from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 43,818 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kayden remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kayden 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 Kayden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaydens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Kayden, while Vermont, Wyoming, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,511 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kayden
The given name Kayden has its origins in the English language, emerging as a variant of the name Caden or Caiden in the late 20th century. It is believed to be a modern creation inspired by the Welsh name Cadyn, which itself derives from the Welsh word "caden," meaning "battle" or "combat."
While the name Kayden does not have a long historical lineage, its Celtic roots can be traced back to ancient Welsh and Irish cultures, where names carried strong warrior connotations. The earliest recorded instances of the name Kayden appear to be in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s, likely influenced by the growing popularity of unique and creatively spelled names during that period.
Regarding notable historical figures bearing the name Kayden, the records are limited due to the name's relatively recent emergence. However, a few individuals with this first name have gained recognition in various fields:
1. Kayden Troff (born 1996) is an American actor best known for his role as Boyd in the 2017 film "Wonder."
2. Kayden Muller-Trapp (born 2001) is a Canadian actor who has appeared in television shows such as "The Haunting Hour" and "Supernatural."
3. Kayden Boche (born 1997) is a Canadian YouTuber and social media personality known for his gaming and comedy content.
4. Kayden Lyles (born 2004) is an American child actor who has appeared in films like "Uncle Drew" and "Fist Fight."
5. Kayden Stephenson (born 2005) is a British child actor known for his role as Young Boba Fett in the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian."
While the name Kayden may lack a deep historical narrative, its contemporary popularity and unique spelling have contributed to its growing recognition as a distinctive and modern given name, particularly in English-speaking countries.
People
Kayden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kayden 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
Kayden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kayden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 78,264 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kayden 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 4,379 US residents.
Is Kayden a common name?
We classify Kayden as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 78,924 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kayden most popular?
The single biggest year for Kayden was 2014, when 5,135 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kayden is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kayden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 51,572 people with the name Kayden, or 17.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #878 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 Kayden 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 Kayden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kayden leans strongly male. 44,722 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 6,853 female bearers (13.3%). 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 Kayden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayden is White at 47.9%. The next largest groups are Black (25.3%) and Hispanic (13.1%). 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 Kayden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kayden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.9% (24,709 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 Kayden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kayden a male name?
Yes, 89.8% of people registered as Kayden 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 Kayden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kayden 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 Kayden 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 Kayden?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.