Kirk
Masculine · “church”
Kirk is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 68,067 boys against 197 girls since 1880.
Kirk is a church. It is the northern English and Scots form of the word, brought in by Norse settlers, and it named the people who lived beside one.
How old is the name Kirk?
Kirk was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Kirk alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 55,500 people named Kirk are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kirk most popular?
Kirk peaked in 1962, reaching #138 nationally. Today it ranks #2539, 2,401 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kyriakon to Kirk
The story of Kirk
Scandinavian settlement in northern England and Scotland brought kirkja with it, and the word is still the ordinary Scots term — the Kirk of Scotland is the national church. Families living beside one took the surname Kirk, which crossed into American given-name use in the twentieth century. It rose sharply through the 1950s, helped by a very visible film actor, and peaked in the mid-1960s.
Meaning
church
From the Old Norse kirkja, 'church', which entered northern English and Scots and displaced the southern 'church' there. Both descend ultimately from the Greek kyriakon, 'of the Lord'. The surname was topographic, for someone living by a church.
How the name formed
- kyriakon
- kirkja
- kirk
- Kirk
Related forms: Kirk · Kirkja · Kerk
Pronouncing Kirk
KURK
One syllable. Said identically in English and Scots.
Nicknames for Kirk
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19622,560 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #138reached in 1962
- Change vs 2022
- −5.5%52 in 2025, from 55
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.
Kirk in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kirk in Scots — same name
- Kirkja in Norse — related form
- Kerk in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kirks among us
people named Kirk are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 32,848 born in 2025 was named Kirk
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 Dick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kirk's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dick climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dick's path sketches the road Kirk is walking now.
Kirk 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 Kirk is headed
Kirk 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.
Kirk beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kirk in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and the word is still in everyday use in Scotland.
- One syllable, crisp, and never mispronounced.
- It records a documented layer of Norse influence on northern English.
- A long-running television captain has carried the name for sixty years.
- It is closely dated to the 1960s in American records.
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What they receive
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Kirk
Masculine · #2539 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kirks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 55,500 people named Kirk are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kirk in 2025?
- Kirk ranks #2539 among US boy names in 2025, with 52 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kirk?
- About 1 in every 32,848 US boys born in 2025 was named Kirk — 52 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kirk with classmates?
- Kirk will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kirk
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yanis#2539 · Ebenezer#2539 · Mazen#2539 · Ziyad#2539 · Mercer#2539 · Ramy#2539 · Konnor#2539 · Luigi#2539
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kirk? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kirk and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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