Kullen
Masculine · “holly”
Cullen is the Irish word for holly, and the surname belonged to families in Wicklow and Kilkenny. Its American career as a given name has a date on it: the Twilight novels, published from 2005, gave the surname to their central family, and American use of Cullen rose sharply through the following decade. Kullen is the K respelling, peaking in 2012.
How old is the name Kullen?
Kullen first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Kullen alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 800 people named Kullen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kullen most popular?
Kullen peaked in 2012, reaching #2104 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,039 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Where it comes from
From cuileann to Kullen
The story of Kullen
The O Cuilinn were a Leinster family and the surname is common in Ireland. Cardinal Paul Cullen, archbishop of Dublin in the nineteenth century, was among the most influential figures in Irish Catholicism. The given name was rare in America until Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, published in 2005 and filmed from 2008, gave the surname to a family of vampires; American use of Cullen rose steeply from 2006 and peaked around 2010. The Kullen spelling belongs to the respelling wave that always follows a fast rise.
Meaningscholars disagree
holly
Irish O Cuilinn is generally derived from cuileann, 'holly', so the name means descendant of Holly or of a man so called. A second route runs through Mac Cuilinn, and a third through the place name Cuilenn in County Down. All three yield the same anglicized spelling. The holly reading is standard and not seriously disputed, though which family a given Cullen descends from cannot be recovered.
How the name formed
- cuileann
- O Cuilinn
- Cullen
- Kullen
Related forms: Cullen · O Cuilinn
Pronouncing Kullen
KUL-un
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the short u of dull and the ending reduced. Identical to Cullen; the K changes nothing about the sound.
Nicknames for Kullen
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
- 1991
- Most boys named
- 201264 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2104reached in 2012
- Change vs 2024
- −26.3%14 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.
Kullen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cullen in English — spelling variant
- O Cuilinn in Irish — related form
Kullens among us
people named Kullen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Kullen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kullen
- #6143
- Kullen on the 2025 chart
- #721
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kullen went to 14 boys in 2025, but Cullen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 208, which makes it the 721st most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,422 places above the chart.
- Cullen194
- Kullen14
About 1 boy in 8,212 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Kullen 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 Zakee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kullen'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 Kullen is walking now.
Kullen 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
Kullen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kullen 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 a single concrete plant with a genuine Irish source.
- Len is a complete name available as a short form.
- The pronunciation is obvious on sight to any English reader.
- Cullen is the standard spelling and hers will be written that way.
- The Twilight association is immediate for anyone who was young in the late 2000s.
- Its curve is around 2010, which places a bearer's generation.
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Kullen
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kullens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Kullen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kullen?
- Kullen is one of 2 recorded spellings. Cullen is the more common one — 194 births in 2025 against 14 for Kullen.
- How popular is the name Kullen in 2025?
- Kullen ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kullen?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Kullen — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kullen with classmates?
- Kullen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kullen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kullen? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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