Kayvan
A Persian name meaning "great", "strong", or "worthy".
Name Census estimates that about 137 living Americans carry the first name Kayvan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kayvan today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kayvan births was 2013 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kayvan. 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 Kayvan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
137
~ 1 in 2,501,856 Americans
Peak year
2013
11 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,635
Tracked since 1984
Census
Kayvan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 323 people with the first name Kayvan, which placed it at #28,012 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
#28,012
National first-name rank
People counted
323
323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kayvan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayvan is White at 72.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.9%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Kayvan 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 Kayvan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.8% · 235
- Two or more races13.9% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 23
- Black or African American3.4% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 9
Popularity
Kayvan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kayvan 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 53 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kayvan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kayvan 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 Kayvan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kayvans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kayvan
The name Kayvan has its origins in the Persian language and culture. It is derived from the old Persian word "Kay" which means king or ruler, and "van" meaning soul or spirit. The name Kayvan can be translated to mean "soul of the king" or "king's spirit".
The name dates back to ancient Persia, which is now modern-day Iran. It was a common name among the ruling class and nobility during the Achaemenid Empire, which ruled over a vast territory from 550 BCE to 330 BCE. The name is mentioned in several ancient Persian texts and inscriptions from this period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kayvan is in the Avestan texts, which are the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest religions in the world. The name appears in the Yasna, a collection of hymns and prayers, as well as in the Vendidad, a collection of religious laws and guidelines.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kayvan. One of the earliest was Kayvan, a Persian prince and military commander who lived during the reign of the Sassanid Empire in the 3rd century CE. He is known for his bravery and loyalty to the Sassanid king, Shapur I.
Another famous Kayvan was Kayvan Rudaki, a renowned Persian poet and author who lived in the 9th century CE. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Persian literary tradition and is often referred to as the "Adam of Persian Poetry".
In the 13th century, there was Kayvan al-Razi, a Persian philosopher, physician, and alchemist who made significant contributions to the fields of medicine and chemistry. His works on philosophy and ethics were also highly influential in the Islamic world.
During the Safavid Dynasty in the 16th century, Kayvan Beg was a prominent military leader and governor. He played a crucial role in the expansion and consolidation of the Safavid Empire under Shah Tahmasp I.
In more recent times, Kayvan Novak was a celebrated Iranian-American actor and comedian who gained fame for his roles in various TV shows and movies, including the popular sitcom "What We Do in the Shadows". He was born in 1973 and passed away in 2022.
People
Kayvan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kayvan 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
Kayvan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kayvan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 137 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kayvan 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 2,501,856 US residents.
Is Kayvan a common name?
We classify Kayvan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 139 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kayvan most popular?
The single biggest year for Kayvan was 2013, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kayvan is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kayvan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 323 people with the name Kayvan, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,012 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 Kayvan 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 Kayvan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kayvan leans strongly male. 317 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 6 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Kayvan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kayvan is White at 72.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (13.9%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Kayvan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kayvan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.8% (235 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 Kayvan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kayvan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kayvan 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 Kayvan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kayvan 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 Kayvan 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 are named Kayvan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.