Kirstie
Feminine · “a Christian”
Kirstie is the Scottish everyday form of Christina, made the way Scots makes its familiar names: cut the front off, put -ie on the end, and let the result stand as a name in its own right. It has been doing exactly that in Scotland for centuries.
How old is the name Kirstie?
Kirstie first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Kirstie alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 4,000 people named Kirstie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kirstie most popular?
Kirstie peaked in 1991, reaching #401 nationally. See the whole 1991 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From christiana to Kirstie
The story of Kirstie
Scots has a whole class of names that began as familiar forms and became names outright: Jeanie, Annie, Maggie, Effie, Kirstie. The -ie is not a diminutive in the English sense, and a Kirstie is not a smaller Kirsten; it is the ordinary spoken form, and Scottish parish records are full of women baptized Christina and known as Kirstie their entire lives. The name reached American lists much later, in the twentieth century, and its chart peak fell in the years when an American actress called Kirstie Alley was appearing weekly in one of the highest-rated comedies on network television.
Meaning
a Christian, a follower of Christ
Christina comes from the Latin christiana. The kirst- spelling is the northern one, shared between Scotland and Scandinavia, where the r and the vowel sit the other way round from the Latin.
How the name formed
- christiana
- Christina
- Kirsten
- Kirstie
Related forms: Kirsty · Kirsten · Kerstin · Christina · Kirsi
Pronouncing Kirstie
KUR-stee
Two syllables, weight at the front, the first rhyming with her. Kirsty, the commoner British spelling, is said identically.
Nicknames for Kirstie
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
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 1991635 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #401reached in 1991
- Change vs 2010
- −16.7%5 in 2011, from 6
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.
Kirstie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kirsty in Scottish — spelling variant
- Kirsten in Danish — related form
- Kerstin in Swedish — related form
- Christina in Latin — related form
- Kirsi in Finnish — related form
Kirsties among us
people named Kirstie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Kirstie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a real Scottish name with centuries of documented use, not a modern respelling of Kirsten.
- Two syllables, no silent letters, and one obvious way to say it.
- It works as a full name and as a familiar one at the same time, which very few names manage.
- Kirsty is the commoner spelling in Britain and Kirstie in America, so both will be offered wherever you are.
- It is heard as Kirsten and Christy by turns and corrected often.
- For many Americans the name arrives already attached to one well-known actress.
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What they receive
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Kirstie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kirsties are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,000 people named Kirstie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kirstie in 2025?
- Kirstie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kirstie with classmates?
- Kirstie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kirstie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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