Cassian
Masculine · “From the Roman family name Cassius”
Cassian is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,893 boys against 14 girls since 1880.
Cassian comes down from the Roman family name Cassius, and it has been worn by monks and martyrs since late antiquity — John Cassian, the fourth-century monk who carried the customs of the Egyptian desert to a monastery at Marseille, is the best known of them. In the mouth it is three unhurried syllables with a soft landing, the same ending Julian and Sebastian share. After centuries of quiet churchly use it has come back into circulation on American birth certificates, and it is climbing.
How old is the name Cassian?
Cassian first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. Cassian is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Cassians are still in diapers. About 2,900 people named Cassian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cassian most popular?
Cassian peaked in 2025, reaching #479 nationally. Today it ranks #479, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Cassian appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Cassius to Cassian
The story of Cassian
Cassius was one of the old Roman clan names, and Cassianus was formed from it in the ordinary Roman way to mark descent or adoption. Christianity gave the longer form its long life: Cassian of Imola, a schoolmaster martyred in the fourth century and later taken as a patron of teachers, and John Cassian, whose Institutes and Conferences shaped Western monastic rule for a thousand years. From Latin it settled into the Romance languages as Cassien, Cassiano and Casiano, and into Polish as Kasjan. English kept it mostly as a saint's name and a scholar's name until recently, when film and fiction — Cassian Andor in the Star Wars films and series, Cassian in Sarah J. Maas's novels — put it in front of a much larger audience.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the Roman family name Cassius; the meaning of Cassius itself is not settled
One reading connects Cassius to the Latin adjective cassus, 'empty, hollow, vain'. Another holds that Cassius, like many of the oldest Roman clan names, is pre-Latin — plausibly Etruscan — and simply cannot be translated. What is not in doubt is the shape of the word: Cassianus is the standard Latin way of saying 'of the Cassius family', the same pattern that gives Julianus from Julius and Aemilianus from Aemilius.
How the name formed
- Cassius
- Cassianus
- Cassien
- Cassian
Related forms: Cassien · Cassiano · Casiano · Cassiano · Kasjan · Kassian
Pronouncing Cassian
KASS-ee-un
Two pronunciations are both in real use: KASS-ee-un in three syllables, and KASH-un in two, the way 'Christian' collapses. Expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Cassian
High
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
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 2025633 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #479reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +36.4%633 in 2025, from 464
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.
Cassian in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cassien in French — same name
- Cassiano in Italian — same name
- Casiano in Spanish — same name
- Cassiano in Portuguese — same name
- Kasjan in Polish — same name
- Kassian in German — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Cassians among us
people named Cassian are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,698 born in 2025 was named Cassian
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Mohammed test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cassian's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mohammed climbed just as high around 2001, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mohammed's path sketches the road Cassian is walking now.
Cassian is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cassian is headed
Cassian is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 68% more babies given the name than today. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Cassian beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cassian in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented line from Roman Cassius through Latin Cassianus to the modern spelling — an unbroken record of use going back to late antiquity.
- Recognizable across French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish, each with a form of the same name.
- Short forms already exist and need no explaining: Cass, Cas, Cash.
- Spelled the way it sounds once the pronunciation is heard, with no silent letters or unusual clusters.
- Sits alongside Julian, Sebastian and Damian in rhythm and ending, so it reads as familiar even to people meeting it for the first time.
- Two pronunciations compete — KASS-ee-un and KASH-un — and neither is wrong. Deciding which one your family uses before the name is public saves a lot of gentle correcting later.
- The Star Wars association is strong and recent for many adults, which can mean instant recognition or an instant comment, depending on the room. That connection will likely fade as the name settles in on its own.
- Almost everyone carrying it in the United States is very young, so the name currently reads as a small-child name rather than one with grown bearers around to normalize it.
- Cass is shared territory with Cassandra and Cassidy, so the nickname will not always announce which name it came from.
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What they receive
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Cassian
Masculine · #479 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cassians are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Cassian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cassian in 2025?
- Cassian ranks #479 among US boy names in 2025, with 633 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cassian?
- About 1 in every 2,698 US boys born in 2025 was named Cassian — 633 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cassian with classmates?
- Cassian will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cassian
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Noel#478 · Ruben#480 · Makai#481 · Samson#477 · Adan#482 · Royal#476 · Tanner#475 · Asa#483
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cassian? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cassian and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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