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Kean

#7,951 in 2025Boys' name

Irish surname transferred into given-name use

Kean has been given to 997 babies in the U.S. since 1944. In 2025 it ranked #7,951 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2007, with 31 recorded.

Babies named Kean, 2025

1 in 332,000

Kean over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kean: meaning, origin, and history

Irish surname transferred into given-name use

Irish surname transfer

What Kean means

Kean is a given name.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Kean is used in English (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈkin/ for Kean.

The naming story behind Kean

Kean is a given name adopted from Irish surname. This establishes the immediate naming route. A surname transfer is different from a direct translation of the modern given-name spelling; the family name may have its own earlier derivation.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 997 boys were recorded with the name Kean between 1944 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 31 in 2007; its best national rank was #2,262 in 1955.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,839 in 2020 to #7,951 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,231 in 2015 to #7,951 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Kean?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 332,000
10 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 171,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#7,951
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kean sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kean. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Keans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kean was born before 2002 — so the typical Kean is around 23 today.

Median birth year
2002
About 23 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
24.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
53.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
980
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 24.0% of all recorded uses (239).

Is Kean rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,401
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,112
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−3,720
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.42×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
32.3%
Peak was 2007 (31)
Years since peak
18
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,262
1955

Spellings of Kean

Kean is not the most common spelling — Kevin is, with 21.5% against Kean's 0.02%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kean is used

Across 1910–2025, Kean was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 746,102 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Kean has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kean around the world

Where Kean ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2005–2005
    #535
    in 2005
  • Ireland
    2000–2007
    #629
    in 2007
  • France
    2002–2023
    #4,982
    in 2023
  • Canada
    1995–2021
    #2,619
    in 2021
  • South Australia
    1960–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Kean by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#7,951
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,112
Best rank ever
#2,262
1955
Peak year
2007
31 that year
First recorded
1944
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
997
Count in 2025
10

Names similar to Kean

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KeaneGeanKeanoKeahiKearyKealanKeaweKealiiLeanJaseanKeagenKeeanKeanuAdreanKeseanDaseanJseanKeananKeabKeandreKeathKeastonOceanKeatyn

Sibling names for Kean

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kean

Top names of 2007, Kean's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1955Boys' names starting with K