Skip to content
BabyNames
Girl name#92 of girl names

Kristen

Pronounced K R IH1 S AH0 N (ARPABET)

  • 2 syllables
  • Peaked 1982
  • 115 years in use
  • 13 spellings
Compare

How popular is Kristen?

Kristen is a girls' name, and first appears in 1910. It has been given to 429,105 children — the 92nd most common girls' name on record.

It is falling away, down 72% on the previous decade. Its best single year was 1982, when 19,647 children were given it.

13 other spellings are counted in that total — Kristin, Christen, Kristyn and ten more — because they are pronounced identically.

05,00010,00015,00020,000192019401960198020002020
198219,647

Spelling variants

These spellings sound identical to Kristen and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.

  • Kristin
  • Christen
  • Kristyn
  • Kristan
  • Cristen
  • Christan
  • Kriston
  • Christon
  • Cristan
  • Chrysten
  • Criston
  • Chrystan
  • Christann

Characteristics

  • 2 syllables
Phonetic detail
Pronunciations:
K R IH1 S AH0 N · K R IH1 S T AE1 N · K R IH1 S T AH0 N · K R IH1 S T AH1 N · K R IH1 S T EH1 N · K R IH1 S T IH0 N
Stress pattern:
10 · 11 · 10 · 11 · 11 · 10
Syllables:
2

Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.

Names like Kristen

Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.

Sibling names for Kristen

Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.

Frequently asked questions

How popular is the name Kristen?
Kristen ranks 92nd among girls' names in US records, with 429,105 births since 1910. Over the past decade it accounts for 2,820.
Is Kristen a unisex name?
No. Kristen is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Kristen most popular?
1982, when 19,647 children were given the name. It has been in use for 115 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
How else is Kristen spelled?
Kristin, Christen, Kristyn, Kristan, Cristen, Christan, Kriston, Christon, Cristan, Chrysten, Criston, Chrystan, Christann. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.