Kaylyn
Feminine · “lake”
Kaylyn is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 12,053 girls against 38 boys since 1880.
Kaylyn joins a Kay- front to the -lyn ending, and the Lynn behind it is the Welsh llyn — a lake.
How old is the name Kaylyn?
Kaylyn first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Kaylyn alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 12,000 people named Kaylyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaylyn most popular?
Kaylyn peaked in 1997, reaching #518 nationally. Today it ranks #2514, 1,996 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From llyn to Kaylyn
Our story of Kaylyn
Our story of Kaylyn is a story of an ending that became a tool. Lynn came from a Welsh word for a lake and stood alone as a name through the mid-twentieth century; American naming then made it a suffix and attached it to everything — Kaylyn, Jaylyn, Braelyn, Adalyn. The Kay- front is a fashionable sound rather than an inherited element. Kaylyn appears in the registers from the 1980s.
Meaningscholars disagree
lake
The -lyn ending descends from Lynn, from the Welsh llyn, 'lake', which is settled. The Kay- front is a modern American sound, perhaps from Kay or Katherine. The compound is recent and only the second half has a documented origin.
How the name formed
- llyn
- Lynn
- Kaylyn
Related forms: Kaylynn · Kaelyn · Kailyn
Pronouncing Kaylyn
KAY-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. All the spellings of the sound are said identically.
Nicknames for Kaylyn
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
- 1949
- Most girls named
- 1997462 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #518reached in 1997
- Change vs 2024
- +20.7%70 in 2025, from 58
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.
Kaylyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kaylynn in English — spelling variant
- Kaelyn in English — spelling variant
- Kailyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kaylyns among us
people named Kaylyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 22,961 born in 2025 was named Kaylyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaylyn
- #2514
- Kaylyn on the 2025 chart
- #447
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaylyn went to 70 girls in 2025, but Kaylynn, Kaylin and Kailyn and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 12 spellings went to 616, which makes it the 447th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,067 places above the chart.
and 4 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 2,609 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 22,961 for Kaylyn 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 Nedra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaylyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nedra climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nedra's path sketches the road Kaylyn is walking now.
Kaylyn 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 Kaylyn is headed
Kaylyn is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Kaylyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaylyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kay and Lyn are two short forms, both with real records.
- The lake meaning is genuine for the ending.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- At least six spellings of the sound are in circulation.
- Only the second half has a documented origin.
- It will be respelled by other people constantly.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kaylyn
Feminine · #2514 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaylyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,000 people named Kaylyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaylyn?
- Kaylyn is one of 8 recorded spellings. Kaylynn is the more common one — 134 births in 2025 against 70 for Kaylyn.
- How popular is the name Kaylyn in 2025?
- Kaylyn ranks #2514 among US girl names in 2025, with 70 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaylyn?
- About 1 in every 22,961 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaylyn — 70 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaylyn with classmates?
- Kaylyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaylyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Syeda#2514 · Gracyn#2514 · Imogene#2514 · Orla#2514 · Annalisa#2514 · Nazareth#2514 · Susannah#2514 · Maysen#2514
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaylyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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