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The first name 
Kristen

Kristen is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Kristen is a common name for girls!

The name Kristen isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Kristen ranks 975. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 2 were named Kristen. In the entire USA, approximately 216,127 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Kristen. That is 0.06 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Kristen

What does the name 
Kristen mean?

In English, Kristen developed as a variant of the name Kristin, which is of Scandinavian origin. It is a form of Christina, a German name that has its origins in the Greek male name Christos meaning ‘anointed’ referring to a Christian rite.

Did you know... that Kristen is a masculine name in Scandinavian countries? It is a variant of Christian.

Kristen -
carrying the 80s and 90s into our century

This was a real surprise! Kristen is a name that has been around for a long time, but only really took off at the end of the 20th century. According to our SmartGenius statistics, it reached its highest rank at #33 in the year 1982, when 9,597 parents chose this name for their newborn daughter. This made Kristen much more popular than in previous generations, where it was so rare for several years that it was not even recorded in the statistics. Now, this name seems to have found its place and has established itself in the beginning of the 21st century as well.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Kristen was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Kristen - a popular player in the midfield

In 2022, Kristen ranked 1,513 in our SmartGenius statistics. In absolute figures, this means it was given to baby girls a total of 125 times. No one knows what names (or combinations of numbers and letters) will be popular 50 years from now, but given its consistent popularity, there is a good chance that Kristen will remain a universally popular name.

Kristen -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in Rhode Island

There are only 537 different women’s names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Kristen is one of them. However, Kristen is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Rhode Island seem to particularly fancy this name – the 1,989 women called Kristen who live here are 0,356% of all female residents and push their name up to #83, easily placing it in the top 100 most common female names in Rhode Island.

Kristen has 7 letters 
and begins with a K

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter K is a real popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 7.5% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters A, S and M are more common for girls' names.

With seven letters, the name Kristen has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 7.5% of all girls' names start with a K, this initial letter occurs more than twice as often as all 26 letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the girls' names that begin with a K, Karen is the most common.

Other names with 
K, r, i, s, t, e and n

If you take all the letters in the name Kristen – K, r, i, s, t, e and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Kirsten or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Kristen

If your name is Kristen and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Kristen

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Kristen, you can simply say:

Koala

Rocket

Igloo

Sun

Tiger

Elephant

Nut

This is how the name Kristen is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Kristen in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Kristen

Kristen

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Kristen

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Kristen is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

K
R
I
S
T
E
N

Have you ever waved the name Kristen

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

K
R
I
S
T
E
N

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Kristen sounds like this: