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Kristen vs Evelyn

How Kristen and Evelyn compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Kristen

Female · English

Meaning: Variant Of Christiana. Follower Of Christ.

Evelyn

Female · Celtic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Kristen (girls) vs Evelyn (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Kristen Evelyn
Peak year (most US births) 1982 — 9,533 girls 1921 — 14,278 girls
Peak rank #33 #12
Most recent rank (2015) #890 (310 births) #8 (9,123 births)
Total US births since 1880 193,091 555,984
Last 10 years (2006–2015) 5,260 97,423

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Evelyn reached 14,278 US births in 1921 — 4,745 more than Kristen's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Kristen births Evelyn births
1969 Kristen 3,812 0
2001 Evelyn 1,991 2,692

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Kristen — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 South Carolina #666 20
2 Maryland #740 21
3 Indiana #893 21
4 New Jersey #923 23
5 New York #1,146 61

Evelyn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Minnesota #3 2,360
2 Wisconsin #3 2,223
3 Oregon #4 1,348
4 Iowa #4 1,220
5 Idaho #4 719

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →