Kaidan
Masculine
Kaidan is given to both — 1,134 boys and 72 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Kaidan is one of the vowel choices available in the Caden family, which was the largest single naming phenomenon in twentieth-century American history. Caden, Kaden, Kaiden, Cayden, Kaidan and a dozen more divide one sound, and the difference between -den and -dan is the smallest of the choices a family makes. Its peak is 2011.
How old is the name Kaidan?
Kaidan first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Kaidan alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,100 people named Kaidan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaidan most popular?
Kaidan peaked in 2011, reaching #1849 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 4,012 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Caden to Kaidan
Our story of Kaidan
The -an and -en endings are said identically in American English, because both reduce to a schwa in an unstressed syllable, and that identity is what allows a name family to fragment as far as this one has. When two spellings sound the same, there is nothing to stop either from being chosen, and both will be. Multiply that by the choice of C or K at the front, by the presence or absence of a y or an i in the middle, and by the option of a doubled d, and you get the arithmetic that produced this family: one sound, more than twenty spellings, none of them dominant enough to be assumed. Kaidan takes the K, the i, and the a. Every one of those is a real decision with no phonetic consequence, and together they make a name that sounds like thousands of others and is written like almost none of them. That is exactly the trade the whole family was designed to make.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No documented source. Caden appears in American records only from the late 1980s; the derivations offered for it — an Irish surname McCadden, an Arabic word, a Welsh element — are unsupported and mutually inconsistent, which is the standard signature of a name reached by sound. Kaidan is one respelling among many. A separate coincidence is worth noting: kaidan is a genuine Japanese word meaning a ghost story or a strange tale, and it is entirely unconnected to the American name.
How the name formed
- Caden
- Kaiden
- Kaidan
Related forms: Kaiden · Caden
Pronouncing Kaidan
KAY-dun
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the ending reduced to a schwa. Identical to Kaiden, Caden and Cayden in speech; the spellings differ only on paper.
Nicknames for Kaidan
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
- 2000
- Most boys named
- 201077 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1849reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −21.1%15 in 2025, from 19
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.
Kaidan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kaiden in English — spelling variant
- Caden in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, California.
Kaidans among us
people named Kaidan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Kaidan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaidan
- #5861
- Kaidan on the 2025 chart
- #883
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaidan went to 15 boys in 2025, but Kaydan and Caidan are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 45, which makes it the 883rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,978 places above the chart.
- Kaydan24
- Kaidan15
- Caidan6
About 1 boy in 37,957 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 113,872 for Kaidan 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 Nicholis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaidan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nicholis climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nicholis's path sketches the road Kaidan is walking now.
Kaidan 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
Kaidan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaidan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kai and Kade are both current, popular short forms.
- The sound is thoroughly familiar, so nobody has to be taught it.
- The spelling is rare enough that a bearer is unlikely to share it exactly.
- More than twenty spellings share the sound and hers will almost never be guessed.
- There is no documented meaning at any point in the name's history.
- The family dates the name closely to the 1995-2020 window.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kaidan
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaidans 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 Kaidan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaidan?
- Kaidan is one of 3 recorded spellings. Kaydan is the more common one — 24 births in 2025 against 15 for Kaidan.
- How popular is the name Kaidan in 2025?
- Kaidan ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaidan?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Kaidan — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaidan with classmates?
- Kaidan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaidan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaidan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaidan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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