Keiran
Masculine · “Little dark one”
Keiran is given to both — 1,043 boys and 143 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Keiran is Kieran with the e and the i swapped, and the swap matters more than it looks: English has no rule for which order those two vowels take, so the two spellings are genuinely equal and neither can claim to be the correction of the other.
How old is the name Keiran?
Keiran first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Keiran alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 1,000 people named Keiran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keiran most popular?
Keiran peaked in 2011, reaching #2105 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 3,503 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ciar to Keiran
The story of Keiran
Ciarán of Clonmacnoise founded on the Shannon in 544 and died at thirty-three; Ciarán of Saighir is one of the pre-Patrician saints. Both are among the twelve apostles of Ireland and the name has been in continuous Irish use since. Its spread into English-speaking countries came in the twentieth century, and because Irish spelling and English spelling handle the vowels differently, the name arrived without a settled English form. Kieran is the commonest, Keiran and Kieron follow; Keiran peaks in 2011, later than the others, at the tail of the Irish-name revival.
Meaning
Little dark one
From Irish Ciarán, a diminutive of ciar, dark or black, describing hair or complexion. The reading is settled. Kieran, Keiran, Ciaran and Kieron are all English renderings of the same Irish name; the ei and ie orders both represent the same long ee sound, and English spelling gives no reliable guidance on which to use.
How the name formed
- ciar
- Ciarán
- Kieran
- Keiran
Related forms: Ciarán · Kieran · Kieron
Pronouncing Keiran
KEER-un
Two syllables, stress on the first. Irish Ciarán puts the weight on the second, keer-AWN. The ei and ie spellings are identical in English speech.
Nicknames for Keiran
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
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 201163 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2105reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −15.8%16 in 2025, from 19
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.
Keiran in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ciarán in Irish — related form
- Kieran in English — spelling variant
- Kieron in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Keirans among us
people named Keiran are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Keiran
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 Zakee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keiran's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zakee climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zakee's path sketches the road Keiran is walking now.
Keiran 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
Keiran beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keiran in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Irish meaning is settled and concrete.
- It has two genuine early Irish saints behind it.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Kieran is the commoner spelling and will be written for it.
- The ei and ie orders are equally defensible, which guarantees confusion.
- English and Irish put the stress in different places.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Keiran
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keirans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Keiran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keiran in 2025?
- Keiran ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keiran?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Keiran — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keiran with classmates?
- Keiran will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keiran
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keiran? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keiran and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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