Kailan
Feminine
Kailan is given to both — 519 girls and 599 boys since 1880. See Kailan as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Kai is a name in a dozen unrelated languages and means something different in each. Hawaiian sea. Japanese, depending on the characters, ocean or shell or forgiveness. Frisian and Danish, a form of a Latin name. Maori, food. And in Persian it is a royal title: the Kayanian kings of the epic are all Kai.
How old is the name Kailan?
Kailan first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Kailan alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 500 people named Kailan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kailan most popular?
Kailan peaked in 2009, reaching #3944 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 7,988 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kailan
The Shahnameh, the Persian epic finished around the year 1010, tells the story of a dynasty whose kings all carry Kai as part of their names — Kai Kavus, Kai Khosrow, Kai Qobad — and the word there is a title meaning something like king. It has nothing to do with the Hawaiian word for the sea, or the Japanese characters, or the Frisian short form, or the Maori word for food. That so many languages independently produced the same two sounds and gave them to people is not mysterious — it is a very easy syllable — but it does mean that a name built on Kai points in every direction at once and settles on none.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source has been established for this spelling. It sits between the Irish Caolan, from caol, slender, and the Kai family with its many unrelated origins. Neither has been shown, and the -lan ending is one of the productive endings of recent American naming.
Pronouncing Kailan
KY-lun
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced almost to nothing. kay-LAN, with the weight at the end, is used in some families; the spelling supports both.
Nicknames for Kailan
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
- 1988
- Most girls named
- 200939 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3944reached in 2009
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%7 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.
Kailan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caolan in Irish — related form
- Kai in Hawaiian — related form
Kailans among us
people named Kailan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Kailan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kailan
- #11932
- Kailan on the 2025 chart
- #940
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kailan went to 7 girls in 2025, but Kaylan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 940th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,992 places above the chart.
- Kaylan13
- Kailan7
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Kailan 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 Graziella test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kailan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Graziella climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Graziella's path sketches the road Kailan is walking now.
Kailan 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
Kailan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kailan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and a spelling most people read correctly on sight.
- Kai works as a short form and is a name in its own right across the world.
- It serves either child, and the records show a real share of both.
- Kaelan, Kaylan, Kalen and Caolan are all in use and none is standard.
- There is no documented meaning for this spelling, only a set of possible parents.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled between the two syllables.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Kailan
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kailans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Kailan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kailan?
- Kailan is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kaylan is the more common one — 13 births in 2025 against 7 for Kailan.
- How popular is the name Kailan in 2025?
- Kailan ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kailan?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Kailan — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kailan with classmates?
- Kailan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kailan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kailan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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