Kirstyn
A feminine name of Scottish origin meaning "follower of Christ".
Name Census estimates that about 2,245 living Americans carry the first name Kirstyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kirstyn today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kirstyn births was 1990 (132 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kirstyn. 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 Kirstyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 152,675 Americans
Peak year
1990
132 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,266
Tracked since 1975
Census
Kirstyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,055 people with the first name Kirstyn, which placed it at #7,435 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
#7,435
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,055 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kirstyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kirstyn is White at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Kirstyn 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 Kirstyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.5% · 1,573
- Black or African American10.5% · 215
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 126
- Two or more races4.4% · 90
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 18
Popularity
Kirstyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kirstyn from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,059 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kirstyn 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 Kirstyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kirstyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. Texas, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Kirstyn, while New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 37 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kirstyn
The name Kirstyn is a variant spelling of the feminine given name Kirsten, which is derived from the ancient Norse name Kristin. Kristin itself comes from the Latin name Christiana, meaning "a Christian" or "a follower of Christ." This name was originally used among early Christian communities in Europe during the Middle Ages.
The earliest known written record of the name Kristin dates back to the 12th century in Scandinavia, where it was commonly used in countries like Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. It's believed that the name spread throughout Northern Europe during the Viking Age, as Norse explorers and settlers brought their names and cultural traditions with them.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kirstyn can be found in the 13th century, when a Norwegian woman named Kirstyn Hakonsdatter was mentioned in historical records as the daughter of King Håkon IV of Norway. She lived from around 1234 to 1262.
In the 16th century, a woman named Kirstyn Sorensdatter was recorded as being one of the first European settlers in Greenland, having arrived there in 1578 with her husband and children. She is notable for being among the earliest known European women to give birth in the Arctic region.
Moving forward to the 17th century, Kirstyn Tovey was an English woman born in 1620 who became one of the first settlers in the British colony of Virginia. She arrived in Virginia in 1635 and is recorded as having lived in the Jamestown settlement.
In the 18th century, Kirstyn Gordon was a Scottish noblewoman who played a role in the Jacobite risings, which were a series of uprisings aimed at restoring the House of Stuart to the British throne. She was born in 1718 and was known for her support of the Jacobite cause.
Another notable figure in history was Kirstyn Delafield, an English painter and artist who lived from 1787 to 1858. She is remembered for her portraiture and landscape paintings, many of which are held in collections in Britain.
People
Kirstyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kirstyn 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
Kirstyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kirstyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,245 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kirstyn 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 152,675 US residents.
Is Kirstyn a common name?
We classify Kirstyn as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,309 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kirstyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Kirstyn was 1990, when 132 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kirstyn is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kirstyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,055 people with the name Kirstyn, or 0.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,435 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 Kirstyn 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 Kirstyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kirstyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,051 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Kirstyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kirstyn is White at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Kirstyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kirstyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (1,573 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 Kirstyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kirstyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kirstyn 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 Kirstyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kirstyn 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 Kirstyn 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 Kirstyn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.