Kannon
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Form Of Kuan-Yin Who Was The Chinese Buddhist Deity Of Mercy.
- Origin
- Japanese
About the Name Kannon
Kannon takes its sound from the Japanese name for the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion and mercy, known in China as Guanyin (Kuan-Yin). In East Asian devotion this figure embodies boundless mercy and gentle protection, and the name carries that contemplative, peaceful resonance — even as, in American use, it doubles neatly as a strong, modern-sounding boys' name with the rugged ring of a surname and the snap of contemporary consonants.
That blend of serenity and strength is much of its appeal. The single recorded variant is Kannan, and the spelling with two ns gives the name a sleek, balanced symmetry that fits comfortably alongside today's favorites built on hard sounds and crisp endings. It is a name that quietly carries spiritual depth while reading as bold and current on a modern birth certificate.
Kannon is a relatively recent arrival in the US Social Security top-1000, first entering for boys in 2013 and reaching its peak in 2020 at rank #540. It remained in the rankings at #983 in 2024, with 228 boys given the name, and had stood as high as #666 in 2022. Having recorded 4,244 boys across its top-1000 run so far, it is a fresh, distinctive choice still finding its footing in American naming, with a quiet meaning of mercy and compassion resting beneath its bold, modern surface.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kannon
US Popularity History (2013–2025)
Annual US births named Kannon by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2020 with 525 boys named Kannon (boy rank #540 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #904 for boys (263 US births). That's 364 places below its 2020 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Kannon Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kannon the strongest states are Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #258 | 124 |
| 2 | Louisiana | #345 | 156 |
| 3 | West Virginia | #346 | 22 |
| 4 | Oklahoma | #372 | 115 |
| 5 | Arkansas | #408 | 82 |
| 6 | South Carolina | #408 | 109 |
| 7 | Alabama | #443 | 114 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #468 | 208 |
| 9 | Kentucky | #484 | 78 |
| 10 | Kansas | #485 | 43 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #1,023 | 108 |
| 2 | Arizona | #889 | 17 |
| 3 | Illinois | #812 | 95 |
| 4 | Michigan | #801 | 66 |
| 5 | Colorado | #776 | 36 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | #751 | 29 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #729 | 35 |
| 8 | Washington | #724 | 43 |
| 9 | Ohio | #721 | 115 |
| 10 | Florida | #664 | 187 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kannon in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kannan | A Form Of Krishna. KAPIL | Male | Indian |
Looking for names like Kannon?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Kannon to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kannon against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).