Kaden
Feminine
Kaden is given to boys far more often — 69,595 boys against 1,106 girls since 1880. See Kaden as a boy name
Kaden is one of the very few widely used American names with no ancestor at all. Aidan is Irish and real; Jaden has a faint biblical shadow behind it; Kaden has neither. It was made when the Aiden rhyme was at its strongest, by attaching the most available consonant to the most available ending, and the record shows it doing exactly that.
How old is the name Kaden?
Kaden first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Kaden alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,100 people named Kaden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaden most popular?
Kaden peaked in 2005, reaching #1615 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 11,593 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kaden
Aidan brought its ending into American naming in the 1990s and the ending then did something no ending had done at that scale: it detached, and every consonant in the language was tried in front of it. Kaden and Caden were among the first of the purely new members — names with the shape of a tradition and none of the substance — and they became genuinely popular very quickly. That is a real event in the history of American naming, and it is this name's whole history. Being new is not a defect; it is simply worth saying rather than covering with an invented etymology.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Nothing is documented. Meanings are printed for this name in various places — companion, from Arabic, and fighter, from a supposed Welsh source — and neither can be traced to a word in either language that would produce it. There is a genuine Welsh Cadan and an Irish surname Mac Cadáin, but no line runs from either to the American name, which appears in the record exactly when the rhyme scheme it belongs to appeared.
Pronouncing Kaden
KAY-den
Two syllables, stress on the first, the second reduced. Caden, Kayden, Kaiden and Kaeden are all said identically, which is why there are so many of them.
Nicknames for Kaden
Moderate
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
- 1993
- Most girls named
- 2005125 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1615reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%6 in 2025, from 10
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.
Kadens among us
people named Kaden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Kaden
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaden
- #13208
- Kaden on the 2025 chart
- #944
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaden went to 6 girls in 2025, but Caden is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 16, which makes it the 944th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,264 places above the chart.
- Caden10
- Kaden6
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Kaden 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 Keaira test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Keaira climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Keaira's path sketches the road Kaden is walking now.
Kaden 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
Kaden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is instantly familiar to every American and needs no explanation aloud.
- Kade works as a short form and has become a name in its own right.
- It is completely readable on sight with no ambiguity about the sound.
- It works for a child of either sex in the record, though nearly all are boys.
- Caden, Kayden and Kaiden all compete, so the spelling has to be dictated forever.
- It has no history to hand a child who goes looking, and the meanings offered online are invented.
- It belongs precisely to one naming wave and will date a boy's birth to within a few years.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kaden
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kadens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Kaden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaden?
- Kaden is one of 2 recorded spellings. Caden is the more common one — 10 births in 2025 against 6 for Kaden.
- How popular is the name Kaden in 2025?
- Kaden ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaden?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaden — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaden with classmates?
- Kaden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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