Name Awesome

Kirsten

#2,841 in 2025Girls' name

Christian

Kirsten has been given to 53,393 babies in the U.S. since 1937. In 2025 it ranked #2,841 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1991, with 1,931 recorded.

Babies named Kirsten, 2025

1 in 55,300

Kirsten over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
05001K1.5K2K18801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kirsten: meaning, origin, and history

Christian

Danish and Norwegian, from Latin

About Kirsten

Kirsten is a Danish and Norwegian form of Christina, meaning “Christian.” It has two established English pronunciations, KUR-stun and KEER-stun, and a distinctive place in American culture through actor Kirsten Dunst and American Girl’s historical character Kirsten Larson.

Meaning and origin

Christina developed from Christiana, the Latin feminine form of Christian. Christian comes from Christianus, meaning “a Christian.” Kirsten carries that meaning through a Scandinavian form of the name.

The change in spelling is substantial, but the relationship to Christina is historical. Kirsten is established particularly in Danish and Norwegian, alongside related forms such as Stine, Kristin, and Kjersti.

Kiersten and Kyrsten are English spelling relatives. They belong to the same naming family, while Christina preserves more of the Latin form.

Pronunciation and short forms

English speakers use both KUR-stun and KEER-stun. Both readings have two syllables and stress on the first. Scandinavian pronunciation differs: Danish and Norwegian have their own consonant and vowel patterns, so an English spelling guide is only an approximation.

Kiki is an established English short form. Kjersti also functions as a related Norwegian form and diminutive.

Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst’s breakthrough came in Interview with the Vampire, when she was eleven. The performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination and introduced her to a wide film audience.

Her later work includes Bring It On, the Spider-Man films, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Those titles give the name recognition across quite different kinds of film.

At Cannes in 2011, she won the best actress award for Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. She also served on the festival’s feature-film jury in 2016.

Kirsten Larson

American Girl’s Kirsten Larson is a Swedish immigrant whose family arrives in America in 1854 and settles in Minnesota. Her stories place the name within a fictional nineteenth-century family rather than modern Hollywood.

Kirsten works on the family farm and begins school while still learning English. Her adjustment involves balancing familiar Swedish traditions with an unfamiliar country, school, and language.

The character gives young readers a specific historical setting for the name. Her story and Dunst’s career also explain why Kirsten can be familiar to American audiences even outside communities where Scandinavian forms are commonly used.

Popularity in the United States

Kirsten reached both its highest birth count and its best rank in 1991, with 1,931 girls at No. 154. It remained at No. 255 with 1,273 girls in 2000.

By 2010, the total had fallen to 319. In 2025, 60 girls received the spelling, placing it at No. 2,841. These figures exclude Kiersten, Kyrsten, and other related forms.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning and history draw on the references below. Popularity figures use the local Social Security Administration series for this exact spelling and sex; counts below five are omitted. Existing Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA. Suggested shortenings are identified in the prose.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How popular is Kirsten?

In 2025, Kirsten ranked #2,841 among girls in the United States, with 60 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1937; its largest annual count was 1,931 in 1991. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.

How common is Kirsten?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 55,300
60 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 26,800
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,841
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
38,299 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kirsten 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 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 38,299 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kirsten. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kirstens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kirsten was born before 1990 — so the typical Kirsten is around 35 today.

Median birth year
1990
About 35 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
31.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
19.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
52,844
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 31.7% of all recorded uses (16,882).

Is Kirsten 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
+304
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−357
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,126
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.49×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
3.1%
Peak was 1991 (1,931)
Years since peak
34
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#154
1991

Spellings of Kirsten

Kirsten is not the most common spelling — Kristen is, with 67.3% against Kirsten's 16.4%.

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 Kirsten is used

Across 2016–2025, Kirsten was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 5,882 girls, against 1 in 29,828 across all states with data. It was least common in North Carolina (1 in 100,000).

117 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 5,882
  2. 2Mississippi1 in 9,091
  3. 3Alabama1 in 20,000
  4. 4Indiana1 in 25,000
  5. 5Georgia1 in 33,333
  6. 6Louisiana1 in 33,333
  7. 7Texas1 in 33,333
  8. 8Arizona1 in 50,000

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.

Kirsten around the world

Where Kirsten 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
    1996–2024
    #5,892
    in 2024
  • Scotland
    1974–2019
    #650
    in 2019
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2015
    #426
    in 2015
  • Ireland
    1971–2019
    #621
    in 2019
  • France
    1959–2021
    #5,618
    in 2021
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #491
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,256
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1952–2013
    #818
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Kirsten

People whose public names include Kirsten, 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.

Kirsten in other languages

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

KerstinKyrstenCristianaKrystianaChristianaChristianeGirsteKirsteKirstjen

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

Kirsten by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,841
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 357
Best rank ever
#154
1991
Peak year
1991
1,931 that year
First recorded
1937
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
53,181
Count in 2025
60

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,803
1970
Peak year
1978
13 that year
First recorded
1963
Last recorded
2004
All-time count
212
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Kirsten

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

KiraKristenKirstinKierstenChristenTristenKirstieKirbyKirstynKirraPaytenKiranKrystenKirahCristenKiristenAustenKyrstenKirstanKirstiKirstyKiriKerstenKirston

Names with a curve like Kirsten

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

MarisaRaquelTiaSabrinaTaniaClarissaDesireeAlissaMaritzaCristinaCaraRebekah

Sibling names for Kirsten

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 Kirsten

Top names of 1991, Kirsten's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1991Girls' names starting with KDanish Girl Names