Kristen vs Kristina
American parents have registered 220,952 Kristens since 1880, against 137,118 Kristinas. But in 2025 it was Kristina that was commoner, 118 babies to 106.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Kristen Kristina
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 93 years in which either name was published, Kristen for 59 years and Kristina for 34 years. The lead changed hands 18 times.
- 1915–1957 Kristina ahead, apart from 4 short spells
- 1958–2008 Kristen ahead, apart from one short spell
- 2014–2022 Kristina ahead
11 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Kristen | Kristina | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 220,952 | 137,118 |
| Most in one year | 9,596 | 5,584 |
| Babies in 2025 | 106 | 118 |
| Estimated living today | 212,000 | 131,000 |
| Median age today | 40 | 41 |
| Peak year | 1982 | 1985 |
| Best rank | 33rd girls | 57th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 1,990th | 1,721st |
| First recorded | 1938 | 1915 |
| Girls / boys | 218,767 / 2,185 | 136,765 / 353 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Where each one is strongest
- Kristen Rhode Island (2.5×), New Hampshire (2.1×), Massachusetts (1.8×)
- Kristina Alaska (2.5×), Washington (1.9×), Oregon (1.8×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Kristen | Kristina |
|---|---|---|
| Norway | 604 | 4,672 |
| France | 915 | 1,050 |
| England and Wales | 605 | 1,151 |
| Scotland | 164 | 303 |
| Ireland | 59 | 178 |
| Northern Ireland | 25 | 17 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Kristen and Kristina.