Kristin
Masculine · “a Christian”
Kristin is given to girls far more often — 179,313 girls against 1,638 boys since 1880. See Kristin as a girl name
Kristin is the Scandinavian form, and its arrival in English has an unusually precise cause. A Norwegian novelist published a three-volume account of a fourteenth-century woman's whole life, it was translated into English in the twenties, it won its author a Nobel, and American parents met the name on the cover of a book that a great many of them actually read.
How old is the name Kristin?
Kristin first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Kristin alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 1,500 people named Kristin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kristin most popular?
Kristin peaked in 1974, reaching #892 nationally. See the whole 1974 chart.
Where it comes from
From The Latin word for a Christian, used as a name to Kristin
The story of Kristin
Sigrid Undset spent the twenties writing the life of a woman born on a Norwegian farm in the fourteenth century, from her childhood to her death in a plague, in three volumes and something over a thousand pages. It is a novel about a difficult marriage, a hard religion and a long life, and it was read enormously in English translation. The Nobel committee cited it directly. Names that arrive through novels behave in a particular way: they climb slowly, because the audience has to get through the book, and they last, because a book stays in print while a song leaves the radio. That is roughly what this spelling did in America. The Scandinavian form was not otherwise in English use, and it entered the language attached to a specific woman on a specific farm who never existed.
Meaning
a Christian
The name descends from the Latin word for a follower of Christ, and the meaning is the same in every language that uses it. What the Scandinavian form changes is only the spelling: no e at the end, a k at the front, and one fewer letter than the English Christine needs to produce the same sound. None of that touches the sense, which has been stable for the whole of the name's history.
How the name formed
- The Latin word for a Christian, used as a name
- Kristin as the Scandinavian form
- A Norwegian novel translated into English
- Kristin in general American use
Related forms: Kristin · Kristin · Christine · Kristin
Pronouncing Kristin
KRIS-tin
Two syllables, stress on the first, ending in a short in rather than an een. Norwegian puts a little more weight on the second syllable than American English does, and Christine, with an e, is a different name in speech even though it is the same one in origin.
Nicknames for Kristin
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
- 1951
- Most boys named
- 197482 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #892reached in 1974
- Change vs 2016
- +33.3%8 in 2019, 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.
Kristin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kristin in Norwegian — same name
- Kristin in Swedish — same name
- Christine in English — related form
- Kristin in German — same name
Kristins among us
people named Kristin 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
Kristin 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 short, familiar and universally sayable, with no ambiguity about the sound at all.
- It is a genuine Scandinavian form rather than a respelling, which matters in families with those roots.
- Kris and Stina give it two very different registers to move between.
- Kristen, Kristin and Kirsten are three different names that everybody confuses, and yours is in the middle of them.
- It is closely tied to one generation of American women and has fallen a long way since.
- The spelling is on the register for boys as well, in small numbers, and reads female to nearly everyone.
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Kristin
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Kristins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Kristin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kristin in 2025?
- Kristin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Kristin with classmates?
- Kristin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Kenneth#294 · Kevin#221 · Kyle#508 · Keith#800 · Karl#1585 · Kaleb#295 · Kurt#2258 · Kelly#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kristin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kristin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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