Kohen
A Hebrew masculine name meaning "priest" or "minister".
Name Census estimates that about 7,339 living Americans carry the first name Kohen. It sits at #318 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Kohen today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kohen births was 2024 (1,096 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kohen. 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 Kohen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Kohen is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 137 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Kohen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
7.3K
~ 1 in 46,703 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,096 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#318
Tracked since 1996
Census
Kohen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,502 people with the first name Kohen, which placed it at #5,035 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
#5,035
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,502 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kohen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kohen is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.3%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 Kohen 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 Kohen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.6% · 2,789
- Two or more races7.3% · 255
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 210
- Black or African American5.0% · 176
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 46
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 26
Gender
Gender distribution for Kohen
Kohen leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 137 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kohen as a male name
- Ranked #318 in 2024
- 1,079 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,079 births)
Kohen as a female name
- Ranked #6,783 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kohen leans strongly male. 3,435 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 64 female bearers (1.8%).
Popularity
Kohen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kohen from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 3,533 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
Kohen 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 Kohen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kohens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kohen, while New Hampshire, Montana, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 165 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kohen
The name Kohen has its origins in the Hebrew language and is derived from the word "kohen," which means "priest" or "cleric." It has been in use since ancient times and is closely tied to the religious and cultural traditions of the Jewish people.
The earliest known references to this name can be found in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. In the biblical text, the Kohanim were members of the priestly class who were responsible for performing religious rituals and sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem. This name was specifically given to those who were descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, and the first High Priest of the Israelites.
One of the most notable individuals with the name Kohen in ancient times was Zadok, a High Priest who lived during the reign of King David in the 10th century BCE. He was instrumental in establishing the legitimacy of the Davidic dynasty and played a crucial role in the consolidation of the Israelite monarchy.
In the Middle Ages, the name Kohen continued to be associated with Jewish religious leadership. One prominent figure was Rashi, a renowned French rabbi and scholar who lived from 1040 to 1105 CE. His commentaries on the Torah and the Talmud have had a lasting impact on Jewish scholarship and continue to be studied to this day.
Another notable individual with the name Kohen was Moses Maimonides, also known as the Rambam, who was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher, astronomer, and one of the most influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. He lived from 1138 to 1204 CE and wrote extensively on Jewish law, ethics, and theology.
During the Renaissance period, a prominent figure with the name Kohen was Joseph Kohen, an Italian Jewish philosopher and scholar who lived from 1496 to 1575 CE. He was known for his work on Jewish mysticism and his defense of the Kabbalah against its critics.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals with the name Kohen was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He lived from 1865 to 1935 CE and was a highly influential figure in the development of religious Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel.
People
Kohen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kohen 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
Kohen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kohen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,339 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kohen 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 46,703 US residents.
Is Kohen a common name?
We classify Kohen as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,393 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kohen most popular?
The single biggest year for Kohen was 2024, when 1,096 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kohen is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kohen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,502 people with the name Kohen, or 1.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,035 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 Kohen 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 Kohen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kohen leans strongly male. 3,435 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 64 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Kohen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kohen is White at 79.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.3%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 Kohen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kohen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.6% (2,789 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 Kohen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kohen a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Kohen 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 Kohen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kohen 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 Kohen 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 are named Kohen?
Find out how many people share the name Kohen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.