Kit
A diminutive form of the name Christopher or Catherine.
Name Census estimates that about 4,857 living Americans carry the first name Kit. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 64.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Kit today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kit births was 2024 (370 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kit. 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 Kit with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kit sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 70,569 Americans
Peak year
2024
370 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,150
Tracked since 1880
Census
Kit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,405 people with the first name Kit, which placed it at #3,735 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
#3,735
National first-name rank
People counted
5.4K
5,405 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kit is White at 60.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.3%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Kit 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 Kit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.1% · 3,248
- Asian and Pacific Islander30.3% · 1,638
- Two or more races3.2% · 174
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 173
- Black or African American2.3% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 46
Gender
Gender distribution for Kit
Kit is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 5,855 total registrations, 3,748 (64.0%) were male and 2,107 (36.0%) were female.
Kit as a male name
- Ranked #1,150 in 2024
- 182 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (182 births)
Kit as a female name
- Ranked #1,240 in 2024
- 188 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (188 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kit on both sides of the split. Of the 5,404 people counted with this name, 2,882 were male (53.3%) and 2,522 were female (46.7%).
Popularity
Kit: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kit from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,421 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
Kit 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 Kit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kits live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. California, Texas, Utah recorded the most babies named Kit, while Oklahoma, New Jersey, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 49 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kit
The given name Kit has its origins in the Middle English word 'kit', which was a nickname or diminutive form of the name Christopher. The name Christopher is derived from the Greek name 'Christophoros', meaning 'Christ-bearer' or 'he who carries Christ'. It dates back to the early Christian era, around the 4th century AD.
Kit was initially used as a shortened form of Christopher, particularly in England and other parts of the British Isles. During the Middle Ages, it gained popularity as a standalone name, with its first recorded use in this capacity dating back to the 13th century.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Kit was Kit Marlowe, an English playwright, poet, and translator, born in 1564. He is renowned for his works such as 'Doctor Faustus' and 'The Jew of Malta'.
Another notable figure was Kit Carson, an American frontiersman and explorer born in 1809. He played a significant role in the westward expansion of the United States, acting as a guide and military officer during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.
In the 20th century, Kit Harington, a British actor born in 1986, gained fame for his role as Jon Snow in the popular HBO series 'Game of Thrones'. His portrayal of the character garnered critical acclaim and contributed to the name's resurgence in popularity.
Kit Culkin, an American actress born in 1944, is known for her roles in films such as 'Taxi Driver' and 'The Age of Innocence'. She is also the mother of actors Macaulay Culkin and Kieran Culkin.
Kit Kittredge, a fictional character and the protagonist of the American Girl book series and film of the same name, is a young aspiring journalist living during the Great Depression. The character, created in the late 20th century, helped popularize the name among young readers.
While the name Kit has its roots in the English language and culture, it has gained widespread use and recognition worldwide, transcending cultural boundaries and inspiring variations in different languages and regions.
People
Kit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kit 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
Kit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,857 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kit 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 70,569 US residents.
Is Kit a common name?
We classify Kit as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,855 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kit most popular?
The single biggest year for Kit was 2024, when 370 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kit is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,405 people with the name Kit, or 1.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,735 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 Kit 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 Kit?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kit on both sides of the split. Of the 5,404 people counted with this name, 2,882 were male (53.3%) and 2,522 were female (46.7%). 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 Kit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kit is White at 60.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.3%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Kit most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.1% (3,248 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 Kit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kit a male name?
Yes, 64.0% of people registered as Kit 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 Kit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kit 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 Kit 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 Kit?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.