Kirill
From Greek origin, it conveys the meaning "master" or "lord".
Name Census estimates that about 471 living Americans carry the first name Kirill. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kirill today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kirill births was 2014 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kirill. 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 Kirill with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
471
~ 1 in 727,716 Americans
Peak year
2014
38 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,445
Tracked since 1997
Census
Kirill in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,911 people with the first name Kirill, which placed it at #7,805 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
#7,805
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,911 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
96.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kirill
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kirill is White at 96.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Kirill 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 Kirill at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.3% · 1,841
- Two or more races1.7% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 11
- Black or African American0.4% · 8
Popularity
Kirill: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kirill from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 283 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kirill 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 Kirill during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kirills live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Florida, California, New York recorded the most babies named Kirill, while Washington, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kirill
The name Kirill has its origins in the Greek language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Greek word "kyrios," meaning "lord" or "master." The name was initially associated with the Lord Jesus Christ in early Christian communities.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Kirill can be found in the 4th century, when Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, a renowned theologian and bishop, lived from around 315 to 386 AD. He is known for his influential lectures on Christian doctrine and his defense of the Orthodox faith.
In the 9th century, a prominent figure named Saint Cyril (or Kirill) the Philosopher, along with his brother Methodius, played a crucial role in the spread of Christianity among the Slavic peoples. They are credited with creating the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, which facilitated the translation of religious texts into Slavic languages.
Another notable Kirill was Cyril Lucaris, a 17th-century Greek prelate who served as the Patriarch of Constantinople from 1612 to 1638. He is remembered for his efforts to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church and his involvement in the Calvinist controversy.
In Russian history, several prominent figures bore the name Kirill. One of them was Cyril of Turov, a 12th-century bishop and writer who is considered one of the most important figures in the development of Old East Slavic literature.
Another famous Kirill was Cyril of White Lake, a 15th-century Russian Orthodox monastic and saint, known for his ascetic lifestyle and founding of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, one of the wealthiest and most influential monasteries in medieval Russia.
Kirill Razumovsky, who lived from 1728 to 1803, was a prominent Russian nobleman and the last Hetman (leader) of the Cossack Hetmanate, a semi-autonomous Ukrainian state under the Russian Empire.
The name Kirill has been widely used throughout the Eastern Orthodox Christian world, particularly in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other Slavic countries, where it has been a popular choice for centuries.
People
Kirill + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kirill 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
Kirill: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kirill?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 471 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kirill 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 727,716 US residents.
Is Kirill a common name?
We classify Kirill as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 475 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kirill most popular?
The single biggest year for Kirill was 2014, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kirill is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kirill in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,911 people with the name Kirill, or 0.63 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,805 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 Kirill 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 Kirill?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kirill appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,914 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kirill?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kirill is White at 96.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Kirill most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kirill in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.3% (1,841 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 Kirill in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kirill a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kirill 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 Kirill still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kirill 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 Kirill 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 have Kirill as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Kirill, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.