Keyan
Masculine
Keyan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,382 boys against 7 girls since 1880.
Keyan sits between a modern American construction and a genuine Persian word — kayan, the plural used for the legendary kings of the Iranian epic. The spelling does not say which is meant.
How old is the name Keyan?
Keyan first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Keyan alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 1,400 people named Keyan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keyan most popular?
Keyan peaked in 2007, reaching #2139 nationally. Today it ranks #3513, 1,374 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Keyan
Ours, offered as ours. The Persian neighbor here is a good one. The Kayanians are the legendary dynasty of the Shahnameh, the eleventh-century epic that carried Persian language and story through centuries of foreign rule, and kayan is their collective title. Whether any American family reached this spelling by that road is not recorded — Kian, Kayan and Keyan all circulate, in Iranian and non-Iranian families alike, and the honest answer names the possibilities rather than choosing one.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source is established for this spelling. Persian kayan is the plural of kay, a king, and names the Kayanian dynasty of the Persian epic. Separately the name occurs in American records as a construction from Key- and -an, or as a respelling of Kian, which is Irish. None is confirmed.
Pronouncing Keyan
KEE-an
Two syllables, first stressed. Persian gives ka-YAAN, with the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Keyan
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
- 1972
- Most boys named
- 200763 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2139reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- +3.2%32 in 2025, from 31
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.
Keyan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kayan in Persian — related form
- Cian in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Keyans among us
people named Keyan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 53,377 born in 2025 was named Keyan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Keyan
- #3513
- Keyan on the 2025 chart
- #889
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Keyan went to 32 boys in 2025, but Keyaan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 39, which makes it the 889th most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,624 places above the chart.
- Keyan32
- Keyaan7
About 1 boy in 43,797 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 53,377 for Keyan 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 Inocencio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keyan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Inocencio climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Inocencio's path sketches the road Keyan is walking now.
Keyan 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 Keyan is headed
Keyan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Keyan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keyan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Read correctly on sight by most English speakers.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Two genuine traditions stand nearby, Persian and Irish.
- Kian, Keyan and Kayan are all in use and none is dominant.
- The stress differs between the Persian and English readings.
- There is no documented meaning for this spelling.
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What they receive
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Keyan
Masculine · #3513 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keyans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Keyan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Keyan?
- Keyan is the most-used spelling in US records — 32 of the 39 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Keyaan.
- How popular is the name Keyan in 2025?
- Keyan ranks #3513 among US boy names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keyan?
- About 1 in every 53,377 US boys born in 2025 was named Keyan — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keyan with classmates?
- Keyan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keyan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bradford#3513 · Denton#3513 · Harden#3513 · Geronimo#3513 · Breon#3513 · Hashem#3513 · Jamere#3513 · Leslie#3513
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keyan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keyan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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