Humanverse

Kristen vs Kristena

American parents have registered 220,952 Kristens since 1880, against 752 Kristenas. Kristen is still ahead, with 106 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kristen against Kristena, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kristen Kristena

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

Kristen has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1938 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1948, when Kristen had 167 and Kristena had 5.

Side by side

  Kristen Kristena
Total US births 220,952752
Most in one year 9,59632
Babies in 2025 106under 5
Estimated living today 212,000720
Median age today 4040
Peak year 19821988
Best rank 33rd girls3,095th girls
Rank in 2025 1,990thunranked
First recorded 19381948
Girls / boys 218,767 / 2,185752 / 0

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

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Kristen and Kristena.