Kairos
Masculine · Greek roots · “the right moment”
Kairos is given to both — 739 boys and 36 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Kairos is one of the great words of ancient Greek: the right moment, the opening that has to be taken while it lasts. Greek teachers of rhetoric argued over it, the writers of the New Testament reached for it, and the sculptor Lysippos gave it a body in bronze in the fourth century BC. As a given name in the United States it is very new, and it says itself on sight.
How old is the name Kairos?
Kairos first appears in US birth records in 2008 — 17 years ago. The typical Kairos is a kid of about 3 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Kairos are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kairos most popular?
Kairos peaked in 2025, reaching #1347 nationally. Today it ranks #1347, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From καιρός (Greek noun) to Kairos
The story of Kairos
The word καιρός belongs to ancient Greek, where it was set against chronos — not clock time, but the moment when something can be done. Teachers of rhetoric treated it as a skill: knowing when to speak. It was also personified: Lysippos made a famous bronze of Kairos in the fourth century BC, a youth with winged feet and a forelock at the front of his head, described afterwards in a Greek epigram, since opportunity can only be grabbed as it comes toward you. The New Testament uses the word often, which kept it alive in theology long after the Greek city-states were gone. Its life as a personal name, however, is recent, and it arrived in American records only in this century — a word lifted into use as a name rather than a name handed down.
Meaning
the right moment; the opportune time
Greek had two words for time: chronos, time as duration and measurement, and kairos, time as the decisive moment. In Christian usage the same word came to mean the appointed time.
How the name formed
- καιρόςGreek noun
- Kairos
Related forms: Καιρός · Kairos · Kairos
Pronouncing Kairos
KYE-ross
KYE-ross is the standard English reading. Modern Greek stresses the second syllable, keh-ROSS, and some American speakers say KAY-ross; all three turn up, so it helps to say your version early and often.
Nicknames for Kairos
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
- 2008
- Most boys named
- 2025140 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1347reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +32.1%140 in 2025, from 106
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.
Kairos in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Καιρός in Greek — transliteration
- Kairos in Spanish — same name
- Kairos in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, Texas.
Kaiross among us
people named Kairos are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 12,201 born in 2025 was named Kairos
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 Fausto test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kairos's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Fausto climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Fausto's path sketches the road Kairos is walking now.
Kairos 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 Kairos is headed
Kairos looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 44% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Kairos beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kairos in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is exact and easy to state in one line — the right moment — which is more than most names offer.
- Kai, the natural short form, is already familiar to nearly everyone, so there is a soft everyday option built in.
- Spelled the way it sounds in English once heard, with no silent letters or doubled consonants to negotiate.
- Recognized on sight by readers of Greek philosophy, rhetoric and the New Testament, where the word has been in continuous use.
- Works across Spanish- and Italian-speaking contexts unchanged, which matters in the states where it is most used.
- It is a word before it is a name, and a fairly grand one. Some people will hear a concept rather than a person, and there will be a lifetime of small conversations about what it means.
- Pronunciation is genuinely unsettled between KYE-ross, KAY-ross and the Greek keh-ROSS. Expect to correct, or to accept more than one version.
- Spelling gets guessed as Cairos, Kyros or Kyrus by people hearing it for the first time.
- Because Kai is so well established, a Kairos may find himself shortened by default from the first week of school — worth deciding in advance whether that suits you.
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What they receive
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Kairos
Masculine · Greek roots · #1347 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaiross are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Kairos are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kairos in 2025?
- Kairos ranks #1347 among US boy names in 2025, with 140 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kairos?
- About 1 in every 12,201 US boys born in 2025 was named Kairos — 140 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kairos with classmates?
- Kairos will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kairos
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bernardo#1347 · Zeus#1347 · Jenson#1347 · Torin#1347 · Zaiel#1345 · Santiel#1345 · Davion#1352 · Lenox#1352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kairos? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kairos and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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