Kilian
A masculine name of Irish origin meaning "bright-headed" or "bright warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 2,512 living Americans carry the first name Kilian. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Kilian today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kilian births was 2023 (212 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kilian. 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 Kilian with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kilian 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
2.5K
~ 1 in 136,447 Americans
Peak year
2023
212 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,050
Tracked since 1970
Census
Kilian in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,710 people with the first name Kilian, which placed it at #8,481 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
#8,481
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,710 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kilian
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kilian is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.1%) and Two or More Races (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 Kilian 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 Kilian at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 1,137
- Hispanic or Latino20.1% · 344
- Two or more races7.1% · 121
- Black or African American4.4% · 76
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Kilian
Kilian leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 27 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kilian as a male name
- Ranked #1,050 in 2024
- 209 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (212 births)
Kilian as a female name
- Ranked #14,737 in 2019
- 6 female births in 2019
- Peak: 2011 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kilian leans strongly male. 1,614 people counted with this name were male (94.1%), compared with 101 female bearers (5.9%).
Popularity
Kilian: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kilian from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,023 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
Kilian 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 Kilian during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kilians live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kilian, while Missouri, Michigan, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 56 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kilian
The name Kilian is derived from the Irish Gaelic name Cillian, which originated from the Latin word "cella" meaning "cell" or "chapel". It is believed to have first emerged as a personal name in the early medieval period, around the 5th or 6th century CE, when Christianity was spreading across Ireland and monastic communities were being established.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Saint Kilian, an Irish missionary who lived in the 7th century. He is known for his efforts in spreading Christianity throughout the Franconian regions of present-day Germany, where he was ultimately martyred around 689 CE. The town of Würzburg, where he was killed, became an important center for the veneration of Saint Kilian.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Kilian gained popularity among Irish and Scottish communities, particularly those with ties to monastic traditions. It was also adopted in various forms across parts of continental Europe, such as the German "Killian" and the French "Killien".
Notable historical figures with the name Kilian include Kilian of Passau, a 7th-century Irish missionary and bishop who helped establish the Diocese of Passau in present-day Germany. Kilian Stumpf (1655-1720) was a German Jesuit missionary and explorer who traveled extensively in Central and South America, mapping regions and contributing to geographical knowledge.
In the 19th century, Kilian Rudinger (1801-1871) was a German Catholic priest and writer who published works on topics ranging from literature to theology. Kilian Kirchhoff (1892-1981) was a German sculptor known for his monumental works, including the famous "Kreuzwegrelief" at the Benedictine Abbey in Maria Laach, Germany.
In more recent history, Kilian Jörg (1940-2008) was a German writer and playwright whose works often explored themes of identity and social critique. His plays were widely performed across Europe and received numerous awards and accolades.
People
Kilian + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kilian 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
Kilian: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kilian?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,512 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kilian 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 136,447 US residents.
Is Kilian a common name?
We classify Kilian as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,539 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kilian most popular?
The single biggest year for Kilian was 2023, when 212 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kilian 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 Kilian in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,710 people with the name Kilian, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,481 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 Kilian 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 Kilian?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kilian leans strongly male. 1,614 people counted with this name were male (94.1%), compared with 101 female bearers (5.9%). 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 Kilian?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kilian is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.1%) and Two or More Races (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 Kilian most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kilian in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (1,137 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 Kilian in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kilian a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Kilian 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 Kilian still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kilian 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 Kilian 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 common is the name Kilian?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.