Keaton
Masculine · “probably 'kite's settlement”
Keaton is given to both — 22,087 boys and 1,418 girls since 1880. See Keaton as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Keaton began as an English place name in Devon, traveled into surnames, and only later crossed over to the front of the name. Silent film gave it a foothold in American ears — Buster Keaton was born Joseph Frank Keaton — and the two syllables have been easy for Americans to say ever since. It has held a quiet, unbroken place in the records for a century now, familiar without ever being everywhere.
How old is the name Keaton?
Keaton first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Keaton alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 21,500 people named Keaton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keaton most popular?
Keaton peaked in 2000, reaching #353 nationally. Today it ranks #769, 416 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Old English cyta + tun to Keaton
The story of Keaton
The name starts as a spot on the map in the English West Country and spreads outward from there. Families who left such a place carried its name with them, and by the era of English parish registers Keaton was a settled surname rather than an address. It reached America the way most English surnames did — as a family name first — and then made the ordinary American journey to the given-name column, in the same company as Colton, Easton and Payton. It has been in continuous use as a first name in the United States for about a century, without a boom and without a collapse.
Meaningscholars disagree
probably 'kite's settlement' — Old English cyta (the bird) plus tun (farmstead, enclosure)
Surname scholars trace Keaton to English place names, but disagree on which. One reading takes it from Keaton in Ermington, Devon, built from Old English cyta 'kite' and tun 'farmstead' — the place where the kites nested. Another routes it through Ketton, giving a first element that is a personal name or a river name rather than a bird. Both are habitational: the name marks a place someone came from, not a quality someone had.
How the name formed
- Old English cyta + tun
- KeatonDevon place name
- KeatonEnglish surname
- Keatongiven name
Pronouncing Keaton
KEE-tun
Stress on the first syllable, with the second reduced to a light -tun. There is only one common pronunciation in American English, and the spelling points straight to it.
Nicknames for Keaton
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
- 1925
- Most boys named
- 2008833 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #353reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- +15.6%333 in 2025, from 288
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.
Keaton in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Keatons among us
people named Keaton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,129 born in 2025 was named Keaton
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 Carey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keaton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carey climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carey's path sketches the road Keaton is walking now.
Keaton 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 Keaton is headed
Keaton is easing off slowly — about 16% 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.
Keaton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keaton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and sound match: almost everyone reads KEE-tun correctly on the first try.
- Already familiar as a surname to American ears, which gives it recognition without competing with other children's first names.
- A century of continuous use in the US records — neither a new coinage nor a name tied to one narrow moment.
- Sits inside a well-known family of -ton names, so people parse and remember it instantly.
- Works fully as it stands; the short forms are optional rather than necessary.
- It is still read by many people as a last name first, so expect the occasional 'like the actor?' — Buster, Diane and Michael Keaton all keep that association alive.
- Nearby names catch it: Keegan, Keenan, Keating and the variant spellings Keeton and Keeten all get written down by mistake. One clear spelling-out usually settles it.
- Given overwhelmingly to boys in US records, with a small number of girls each year — enough that a form asking about gender is not always assumed correctly.
- A child with this name will most likely be the only one in the class, which some people enjoy and others find tiring to explain.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Keaton to the vote.
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What they receive
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Keaton
Masculine · #769 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keatons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 21,500 people named Keaton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keaton in 2025?
- Keaton ranks #769 among US boy names in 2025, with 333 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keaton?
- About 1 in every 5,129 US boys born in 2025 was named Keaton — 333 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keaton with classmates?
- Keaton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keaton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emmitt#769 · Boden#769 · Reign#769 · Brayan#768 · Izael#767 · Truce#773 · Asaiah#773 · Magnus#763
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keaton? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keaton and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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