Kylene
Feminine · “narrow”
This is a woman's name built from a man's name that was built from a place. Three steps, each of them ordinary on its own: a stretch of Scottish coast gave its word to a district, the district gave a surname, the surname became a boy's first name, and an American ending turned it into a girl's.
How old is the name Kylene?
Kylene first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Kylene alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 1,600 people named Kylene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kylene most popular?
Kylene peaked in 1979, reaching #778 nationally. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From caol to Kylene
The story of Kylene
The y in it is an English addition that the Gaelic word never had. Gaelic spells the word with a c and a diphthong and no y anywhere, because the letter does very little work in that language; English, meeting the sound, reached for the letter it uses for a long i in a short word and produced a spelling that looks nothing like the original. Every stage of that is normal — borrowing languages respell to their own habits — but it means the visible name and the word it comes from now share almost no letters at all.
Meaning
narrow, a strait
The Gaelic word behind the first element describes something narrow, and is used along the west coast for the channels between islands. The ending contributes nothing translatable.
How the name formed
- caol
- Kyle
- Kylene
Pronouncing Kylene
ky-LEEN
Two syllables with the weight at the back. The front keeps the long vowel of Kyle, which the spelling makes clear.
Nicknames for Kylene
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
- 1948
- Most girls named
- 1980149 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #778reached in 1979
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
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.
Kylenes among us
people named Kylene 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
Kylene 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
- The stress at the back gives it a decisive finish.
- The meaning is concrete and tied to a real landscape.
- It is rarer than its relatives while sounding entirely familiar.
- Kyleen and Kylyn both appear and the spelling gets queried.
- The ending dates it firmly to the middle of the last century.
- The first syllable is now strongly associated with the boy's name.
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Kylene
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kylenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Kylene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kylene in 2025?
- Kylene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kylene with classmates?
- Kylene 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
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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