Kayin
Masculine · “Yoruba”
Kayin is given to both — 548 boys and 82 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Yoruba naming does not begin with a choice. A set of names is fixed by the circumstances of the birth itself: the first twin is Taiwo, the second is Kehinde, the child born after twins is Idowu. Kayin belongs to that automatic layer, where the facts of the delivery name the child.
How old is the name Kayin?
Kayin first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Kayin alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 500 people named Kayin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kayin most popular?
Kayin peaked in 2001, reaching #2931 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 5,979 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kayinde to Kayin
The story of Kayin
Yoruba children receive several names, and only some of them are chosen. The oruko amutorunwa, the name brought from heaven, is determined by the birth: Taiwo and Kehinde for twins in order of arrival, Idowu for the child after twins, Dada for a child born with curly hair, Ojo or Aina for a child born with the cord around the neck, Ige for a breech birth. These are not preferences; they are the correct names for those events, and a Yoruba speaker hearing one learns something factual about the person. Alongside them sit the chosen names, the oruko abiso, which are full sentences about the family's situation, and a praise name, the oriki. The system assumes a name should carry information, which is a very different premise from the European one, where a name is inherited or liked and carries almost nothing.
Meaningscholars disagree
Yoruba, a name marking the circumstances of birth
Three sources produce this spelling in American records. The likeliest is Yoruba, where Kayin appears as a short form of names such as Kayinde, given according to the circumstances of a birth. A second is Hebrew Qayin, the name English calls Cain, which Genesis explains by a pun on a verb meaning to acquire. A third is a respelling of Caden or Kayden. The peak is 2001.
How the name formed
- Kayinde
- Kayin
Related forms: Kayinde · Qayin
Pronouncing Kayin
KAH-yin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Yoruba is a tonal language and the tones are not written in the English spelling. Americans often say KAY-in instead.
Nicknames for Kayin
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
- 1977
- Most boys named
- 200131 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2931reached in 2001
- Change vs 2023
- −27.3%8 in 2025, from 11
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.
Kayin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kayinde in Yoruba — related form
- Qayin in Hebrew — related form
Kayins among us
people named Kayin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Kayin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kayin
- #8910
- Kayin on the 2025 chart
- #637
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kayin went to 8 boys in 2025, but Cain, Kain and Kayn are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 307, which makes it the 637th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,273 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 5,564 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 213,510 for Kayin 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 Babatunde test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kayin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Babatunde climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Babatunde's path sketches the road Kayin is walking now.
Kayin 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
Kayin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kayin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters and two syllables, easy in English.
- It belongs to a naming system with real documented structure.
- Kay works as a short form.
- Three unrelated sources produce the same spelling.
- The Yoruba tones are lost in English entirely.
- It is close to Cain, which most readers will hear.
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What they receive
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Kayin
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kayins 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 Kayin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kayin?
- Kayin is one of 4 recorded spellings. Cain is the more common one — 185 births in 2025 against 8 for Kayin.
- How popular is the name Kayin in 2025?
- Kayin ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kayin?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Kayin — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kayin with classmates?
- Kayin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kayin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kayin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kayin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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