Kailan
Masculine
Kailan is given to both — 599 boys and 519 girls since 1880. See Kailan as a girl 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 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Kailan is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Kailan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kailan most popular?
Kailan peaked in 2022, reaching #2830 nationally. Today it ranks #3848, 1,018 places below that high. See the whole 2022 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
- 1990
- Most boys named
- 202245 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2830reached in 2022
- Change vs 2024
- −37.8%28 in 2025, from 45
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Kailans among us
people named Kailan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 61,003 born in 2025 was named Kailan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kailan
- #3848
- Kailan on the 2025 chart
- #882
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kailan went to 28 boys in 2025, but Kaylan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 46, which makes it the 882nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,966 places above the chart.
- Kailan28
- Kaylan18
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 61,003 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 Khoi 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: Khoi climbed just as high around 1982, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Khoi'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
Where Kailan is headed
Kailan looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 36% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. 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.
Kailan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kailan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys 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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What they receive
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Kailan
Masculine · #3848 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 600 people named Kailan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kailan?
- Kailan is the most-used spelling in US records — 28 of the 46 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kaylan.
- How popular is the name Kailan in 2025?
- Kailan ranks #3848 among US boy names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kailan?
- About 1 in every 61,003 US boys born in 2025 was named Kailan — 28 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.
Armand#3848 · Tracy#3848 · Stafford#3848 · Dewey#3848 · Donny#3848 · Trevion#3848 · Coltyn#3848 · Isreal#3848
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kailan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kailan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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