Kileen
A feminine name of Irish origin meaning "bright-headed".
Name Census estimates that about 103 living Americans carry the first name Kileen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kileen today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kileen births was 1960 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kileen. 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
103
~ 1 in 3,327,712 Americans
Peak year
1960
16 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
1998 SSA rank
#11,791
Tracked since 1960
Census
Kileen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 204 people with the first name Kileen, which placed it at #37,948 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
#37,948
National first-name rank
People counted
204
204 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kileen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kileen is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.9%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Kileen 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 Kileen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.3% · 174
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 12
- Two or more races4.9% · 10
- Black or African American1.5% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2
Popularity
Kileen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kileen from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 58 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Kileen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kileen 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 Kileen 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 Kileen
The given name Kileen is believed to have originated from the Irish Gaelic language. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period in Ireland, around the 5th to 8th centuries AD. Kileen is thought to be a feminine variation of the masculine name Cillian, which itself is derived from the Irish word "cill" meaning "church" or "monastery."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kileen can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In these annals, a woman named Kileen ní Dhomhnaill is mentioned as being the wife of a notable chieftain in the 12th century.
Kileen is also believed to have been the name of a 7th century Irish saint, known as St. Kileen of Iona. According to historical records, she was a nun who lived and ministered on the island of Iona, off the western coast of Scotland. Her feast day is celebrated on February 8th in some Catholic traditions.
In the 16th century, a woman named Kileen O'Toole was a prominent figure in Irish history. She was a member of the powerful O'Toole clan and is recorded as having played a significant role in the Irish resistance against English colonization during the Tudor conquest of Ireland.
Another notable figure with the name Kileen was Kileen O'Donnell, who lived in the 17th century. She was a member of the influential O'Donnell dynasty and was known for her patronage of the arts and literature in Gaelic Ireland.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals with the name Kileen was Kileen Enright, an Irish author and poet who lived from 1916 to 1995. Her works, which often explored themes of Irish identity and culture, were widely acclaimed and earned her several literary awards.
While the name Kileen has its roots in Ireland and the Gaelic language, it has since spread to other parts of the world, particularly in areas with significant Irish diaspora populations. However, its historical and cultural significance remains deeply rooted in its Irish origins.
People
Kileen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kileen 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
Kileen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kileen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kileen 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 3,327,712 US residents.
Is Kileen a common name?
We classify Kileen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 118 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kileen most popular?
The single biggest year for Kileen was 1960, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kileen is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kileen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 204 people with the name Kileen, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,948 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 Kileen 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 Kileen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kileen leans strongly female. 202 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 7 male bearers (3.3%). 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 Kileen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kileen is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.9%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Kileen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kileen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.3% (174 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 Kileen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kileen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kileen in the SSA data are female. 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 Kileen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kileen 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 Kileen 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 called Kileen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.