Humanverse

Kilian

Kilian is a boy's name that peaked in 2023, when it was the 1,031st most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 1,166th. About 2,700 Kilians are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 7.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Kilian boys named Kilian

By the numbers

Total US births
2,717
Estimated living today
2,700
Median age today
7
Peak year
2023
Best rank
1,031st
Rank in 2025
1,166th
First recorded
1970
Girls / boys
27 / 2,690

How old the living Kilians are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 60 120 180 240 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 2,717 babies given the name since 1970, about 2,700 are alive — 99 in every hundred. Roughly 2,200 of them are children and 0 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2018 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Where the name comes from

Origin Irish

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Notable Kilians

People named Kilian with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Where Kilian is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Kilian is most concentrated in Florida (3.1×), Washington (2.7×), California (2.3×), Virginia (2.2×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 2023

The most popular boys’ names the year Kilian peaked:

All the names of 2023

Kilian elsewhere

CountrySpelling BirthsBest rank
France boys Kilian 10,745 97th
Austria boys Kilian 4,091 46th
Switzerland boys Kilian 2,310 46th
Belgium boys Kilian 760 182nd
Italy boys Kilian 477
England and Wales boys Kilian 266 1,226th
Ireland boys Kilian 213 184th
Poland boys Kilian 181 birth registrations 264th
Scotland boys Kilian 19 464th
Northern Ireland boys Kilian 3 416th

Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.

Kilian: births by region

RegionCountry Spelling BirthsShare of the region Best rank
German boys Switzerland Kilian 1,741 0.140% 45th
French boys Switzerland Kilian 480 0.110% 38th
Italian boys Switzerland Kilian 85 0.130% 46th
Romansh boys Switzerland Kilian 4 0.108% 18th

Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.

By canton, Kilian is most concentrated in Appenzell Ausserrhoden, where 0.34% of children were given it – 40 of them.

Kilian: rank by region

In 2016, Kilian was given 5 times or more in 2 regions of Belgium.

Region Spelling Place Children
Flanders Kilian 865 5
Wallonia Kilian 478 5

In 2023, Kilian was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.

Region Spelling Place Children
Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste Kilian 10 1

In 2025, Kilian was given 2 times or more in 4 regions of Poland.

Region Spelling Place Children
Dolnośląskie Kilian 243 2
Lubuskie Kilian 116 3
Pomorskie Kilian 179 3
Śląskie Kilian 254 2

Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.

Kilian by city

CityYears BirthsBest rank
Berlin boys 2017–2023 258 83rd

One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.

Kilian among the living

How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.

Country Spelling First forename Any forename
Finland boys Kilian 26 50

A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.

Where Kilian lives in Spain

Not a count of births but of people: 4,572 men called Kilian were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.

Men: the provinces where it is densest

Province Spelling People Per thousand Place there
Palmas, Las Kilian 483 0.830 159
Tarragona Kilian 258 0.589 220
Santa Cruz de Tenerife Kilian 313 0.587 211
Barcelona Kilian 1,355 0.465 224
Lleida Kilian 91 0.386 283
Girona Kilian 146 0.351 297

Listed in 46 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 6 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.

Related names

Kilian against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Kilian with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.