Kiril
Masculine given name of Slavic origin meaning "lord" or "master".
Name Census estimates that about 156 living Americans carry the first name Kiril. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kiril today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kiril births was 2010 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kiril. 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 Kiril with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
156
~ 1 in 2,197,143 Americans
Peak year
2010
15 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2019 SSA rank
#9,365
Tracked since 1978
Census
Kiril in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 665 people with the first name Kiril, which placed it at #16,809 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
#16,809
National first-name rank
People counted
665
665 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kiril
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kiril is White at 94.4%. The next largest groups are Black (1.5%) and Hispanic (1.5%). 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 Kiril 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 Kiril at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.4% · 628
- Black or African American1.5% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 10
- Two or more races1.4% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Kiril: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kiril from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 86 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
Kiril 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 Kiril during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kirils live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kiril
Kiril is a masculine given name derived from the Greek name Kyrillos, which stems from the Greek word "kyrios" meaning "lord" or "master." The name has its roots in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition and has been particularly popular in Slavic cultures influenced by the Byzantine Empire and its religious and cultural heritage.
The name Kiril gained widespread recognition due to its association with Saint Cyril, one of the two Byzantine Greek brothers, along with Saint Methodius, who were instrumental in the spread of Christianity among the Slavic peoples in the 9th century. Saint Cyril, originally known as Constantine, is credited with creating the Glagolitic alphabet, which later influenced the development of the Cyrillic script used in many Slavic languages.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Kiril can be found in the Old Church Slavonic text "Life of Constantine-Cyril," written in the late 9th or early 10th century, which chronicled the life and missionary work of Saint Cyril. This text played a significant role in the dissemination of the name among Slavic populations.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Kiril, including:
1. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 CE), a prominent theologian and Patriarch of Alexandria known for his role in the Council of Ephesus and his writings against Nestorius.
2. Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386 CE), a distinguished theologian and bishop of Jerusalem who is revered as a Doctor of the Church for his influential catechetical lectures.
3. Cyril Lucaris (1572-1638), a Greek prelate who served as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and played a significant role in the development of the Eastern Orthodox Church's theology.
4. Cyril Tourneur (c. 1575-1626), an English dramatist and poet best known for his tragedy "The Revenger's Tragedy."
5. Cyril Cusack (1910-1993), an Irish actor and filmmaker who appeared in numerous films and television shows throughout his long career.
The name Kiril has maintained its popularity in various Slavic countries, particularly in Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and North Macedonia, where it is often associated with the Eastern Orthodox Christian heritage and the cultural legacy of the Byzantine Empire.
People
Kiril + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kiril 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
Kiril: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kiril?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 156 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kiril 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 2,197,143 US residents.
Is Kiril a common name?
We classify Kiril as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 158 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kiril most popular?
The single biggest year for Kiril was 2010, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kiril is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kiril in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 665 people with the name Kiril, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,809 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 Kiril 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 Kiril?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kiril appears almost entirely male. Of the 666 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Kiril?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kiril is White at 94.4%. The next largest groups are Black (1.5%) and Hispanic (1.5%). 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 Kiril most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kiril in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.4% (628 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 Kiril in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kiril a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kiril 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 Kiril still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kiril 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 Kiril 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 Americans are named Kiril?
See how many people have the name Kiril on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.