Name Awesome

Kerstin

Girls' name

A Christian person, a Christian, through Kristina

Kerstin has been given to 2,537 babies in the U.S. since 1950. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1998, with 97 recorded.

Babies named Kerstin, 2021

1 in 678,000

Kerstin over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kerstin: meaning, origin, and history

A Christian person, a Christian, through Kristina

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Kerstin means

Kerstin belongs to the name family reached through Kerstin → Kerstin → Kristina → Christina → Chrīstiāna. Its meaning is “a Christian person, a Christian”.

Origin, language, and formation

Kerstin is used in Estonian, German and Swedish.

Kerstin comes through Swedish Kerstin.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Kristiina, Kristina, Kerstin, Christina and Chrīstiāna.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Swedish, Kerstin is pronounced /²ɕæʂtɪn/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,537 girls were recorded with the name Kerstin between 1950 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 97 in 1998; its best national rank was #1,660 in 1998.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kerstin?

Kerstin had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 678,000
5 of 3,389,958 births
Among girls only
1 in 328,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,949 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kerstin sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 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 469,949 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kerstin. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kerstins were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kerstin was born before 1991 — so the typical Kerstin is around 34 today.

Median birth year
1991
About 34 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
30.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
33.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,537
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 30.9% of all recorded uses (783).

Is Kerstin 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1998 (97)
Years since peak
27
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,660
1998

Spellings of Kerstin

Kerstin is not the most common spelling — Kristin is, with 62.7% against Kerstin's 0.89%.

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 Kerstin is used

Across 1910–2025, Kerstin was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 181,360 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Florida1 in 100,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 100,000
  4. 4Indiana1 in 100,000
  5. 5Michigan1 in 100,000
  6. 6Ohio1 in 100,000
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  8. 8Texas1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Kerstin has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kerstin around the world

Where Kerstin 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
    1996–2005
    #4,798
    in 2005
  • France
    1971–1991
    #3,546
    in 1991
  • Norway
    1880–1993
    #610
    in 1993
  • Canada
    1991–2005
    #2,828
    in 2005
  • South Australia
    1957–1989
    #692
    in 1989

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

Notable people named Kerstin

People whose public names include Kerstin, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Kerstin in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Kerstin. Linked forms have their own page here.

KineKirstiKristiKristyCristinKirstenKristinChristinCristinaKristinaKristineKrystynaChristinaChristineCristianaKristianeKristiinaKrisztinaKrystianaChristianaChristianeCerstinKristínKirstjen

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Kerstin by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,660
1998
Peak year
1998
97 that year
First recorded
1950
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
2,537
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kerstin

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

KerriganKeriganKerrieKerenKeriannKerstenKeraTristinKrystinAustinKerissaKerrinKerensaCristinKerstynKerianneKyrstinDestinKerilynKerriannKerringtonKerinKierstinKerra

Names with a curve like Kerstin

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Kerstin, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

SarenaRaeannKorinaDenaeLorinTaviaTorriRebeckaTamiraDeonnaNidiaTorie

Sibling names for Kerstin

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 Kerstin

Top names of 1998, Kerstin's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1998Girls' names starting with KSwedish Girl Names