Kristopher
Derived from the Late Greek name Khristos, meaning "anointed" or "consecrated."
Name Census estimates that about 60,670 living Americans carry the first name Kristopher. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Kristopher today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kristopher births was 1978 (2,536 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kristopher. 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 Kristopher with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Kristopher is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 297 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
61K
~ 1 in 5,649 Americans
Peak year
1978
2,536 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,172
Tracked since 1947
Census
Kristopher in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 45,567 people with the first name Kristopher, which placed it at #962 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
#962
National first-name rank
People counted
46K
45,567 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kristopher
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kristopher is White at 70.6%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Hispanic (10.5%). 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 Kristopher 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 Kristopher at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.6% · 32,188
- Black or African American11.5% · 5,243
- Hispanic or Latino10.5% · 4,791
- Two or more races4.9% · 2,254
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 753
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 338
Gender
Gender distribution for Kristopher
Out of the 63,372 babies given the name Kristopher since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Kristopher as a male name
- Ranked #1,172 in 2024
- 177 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1978 (2,525 births)
Kristopher as a female name
- Ranked #17,567 in 2004
- 5 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1985 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kristopher appears almost entirely male. Of the 45,559 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Kristopher: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kristopher from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 20,229 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kristopher 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 Kristopher during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kristophers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Kristopher, while Delaware, Vermont, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,193 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kristopher
The name Kristopher has its origins in the Greek language, derived from the elements "Christos" meaning "anointed" and "phero" meaning "to bear" or "to carry". It is a variant spelling of the more common name Christopher, which was initially used to refer to a bearer of Christ or a Christian.
The name can be traced back to the early Christian era, around the 3rd or 4th century AD, when it gained popularity among the followers of the Christian faith. The name is believed to have been inspired by the biblical figure of St. Christopher, a legendary martyr and patron saint of travelers.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kristopher can be found in the Acta Sanctorum, a collection of hagiographies (biographies of saints) compiled by the Bollandist scholars in the 17th century. This work mentions a figure named Kristopher, who was a Christian martyr during the persecutions under the Roman emperor Decius in the 3rd century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kristopher. One of the earliest was Kristopher of Bavaria (c. 1180-1245), a German nobleman and crusader who participated in the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land.
Another notable bearer of the name was Kristopher Vick (c. 1590-1670), an English Puritan minister and author who played a role in the English Reformation.
In the field of literature, Kristopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was an English playwright and poet of the Elizabethan era, renowned for his works such as "Doctor Faustus" and "The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus".
Kristopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer and navigator, is perhaps one of the most famous individuals with this name. Although his given name was Cristoforo, the English spelling Kristopher has been widely used to refer to him.
In more recent times, Kristopher Nolan (born 1970) is a renowned British-American filmmaker known for his critically acclaimed movies such as "Inception", "Interstellar", and "The Dark Knight" trilogy.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who have borne the name Kristopher, highlighting its enduring presence across different cultures and time periods.
People
Kristopher + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kristopher 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
Kristopher: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kristopher?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60,670 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kristopher 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 5,649 US residents.
Is Kristopher a common name?
We classify Kristopher as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 63,372 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kristopher most popular?
The single biggest year for Kristopher was 1978, when 2,536 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kristopher is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kristopher in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 45,567 people with the name Kristopher, or 15.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #962 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 Kristopher 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 Kristopher?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kristopher appears almost entirely male. Of the 45,559 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Kristopher?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kristopher is White at 70.6%. The next largest groups are Black (11.5%) and Hispanic (10.5%). 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 Kristopher most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kristopher in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.6% (32,188 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 Kristopher in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kristopher a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Kristopher 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 Kristopher still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kristopher 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 Kristopher 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 share the name Kristopher?
See how many people share the name Kristopher on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.