Cain
Masculine · “acquired" or "spear/smith”
Cain is one of the oldest names anyone still gives a child — it appears in the fourth chapter of Genesis, which means it has been read aloud, in one language or another, for something like two and a half thousand years. It is a single syllable that ends cleanly, and an English speaker reads it correctly on sight. It also arrives by a second road entirely: Cain is a long-established Manx and Irish surname, from Ó Catháin, worn by families who never had the biblical figure in mind at all.
How old is the name Cain?
Cain first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Cain alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 7,400 people named Cain are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cain most popular?
Cain peaked in 2014, reaching #727 nationally. Today it ranks #1141, 414 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Cain appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Qayin to Cain
The story of Cain
The name is Hebrew, Qayin, and it enters the record in Genesis as the elder son of Adam and Eve. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Kaïn; Latin kept it as Cain, and English Bible translators inherited that spelling unchanged, which is why the form on this page looks the way it does. Alongside that scriptural line runs a completely separate one: Cain as a family name from the Gaelic Ó Catháin and Mac Catháin, common on the Isle of Man and in Ireland, carried to America with those families and — as happens with surnames here — eventually turned round and used in front. American use of Cain as a given name has been quiet and continuous for over a century, never crowded, never absent.
Meaningscholars disagree
"acquired" or "spear/smith" — the readings compete
Genesis itself supplies the first reading: the Hebrew Qayin is tied there to the verb qanah, "to get, to acquire." Scholars of Semitic languages have long connected the same consonants to a word for a spear or a metalworker, which would also link the name to the Kenites of the Hebrew Bible. Through the Irish and Manx surname the trail is different again: Cathán, a diminutive built on cath, "battle."
How the name formed
- Qayin
- Kaïn
- Cain
Related forms: קַיִן (Qayin) · Caín · Caïn · Caino · Caim · Каин (Kain)
Pronouncing Cain
KAYN
One syllable, rhyming with rain. Identical in sound to the surnames Kane and Caine and to the word cane, so the spelling — not the pronunciation — is what needs saying aloud.
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1910
- Most boys named
- 2014330 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #727reached in 2014
- Change vs 2023
- −26.0%185 in 2025, from 250
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cain in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- קַיִן (Qayin) in Hebrew — transliteration
- Caín in Spanish — same name
- Caïn in French — same name
- Caino in Italian — same name
- Caim in Portuguese — same name
- Каин (Kain) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Cains among us
people named Cain are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,233 born in 2025 was named Cain
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cain
- #1141
- Cain on the 2025 chart
- #637
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cain went to 185 boys in 2025, but Kain, Kayn and Kayin are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 307, which makes it the 637th most-given boys’ name of the year — 504 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 5,564 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,233 for Cain itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lorenza test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cain's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lorenza climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lorenza's path sketches the road Cain is walking now.
Cain sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cain is headed
Cain should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Cain beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cain in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, phonetic in English: almost no one will mispronounce it, even on a first reading.
- Recognized across languages — the biblical text carried the name into Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian in closely matching forms.
- Two independent origins, Hebrew scripture and the Gaelic surname Ó Catháin, so it works as a family name passed forward as well as a first name.
- Documented continuously for millennia, while staying uncommon in American classrooms — familiar and rare at the same time.
- The Genesis association is unavoidable: Cain kills his brother, and the phrases "the mark of Cain" and "raising Cain" both come from that story. Many people meet the name without thinking of it; some, especially in religious families, will think of it immediately.
- Spelled aloud for life. Kane, Caine and Cayne are all in use, and this spelling is the one most people won't assume first.
- It is a homophone of "cane," which invites the occasional easy joke, particularly in the school years.
- Very short, so it leaves no nickname to grow into — what you choose is what gets used, in every setting.
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Cain
Masculine · #1141 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cains are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,400 people named Cain are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cain?
- Cain is the most-used spelling in US records — 185 of the 307 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kain, Kayn and Kayin.
- How popular is the name Cain in 2025?
- Cain ranks #1141 among US boy names in 2025, with 185 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cain?
- About 1 in every 9,233 US boys born in 2025 was named Cain — 185 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cain with classmates?
- Cain will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cain
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adiel#1141 · Zen#1141 · Lazarus#1141 · Ansel#1138 · Stellan#1138 · Isai#1138 · Kenan#1145 · Sol#1145
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cain? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cain and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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