Kristin
- Pronunciation
- [Kris-tin]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- The Anointed
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Kristin
Kristin is a Scandinavian form of Christina, which descends from the Latin Christianus and ultimately the Greek Christianos — meaning "follower of Christ" or "the anointed one." The name has deep roots in Norwegian and Swedish culture, where it has been in continuous use since the medieval period. Its spread into American usage came via Scandinavian immigration and the broader mid-century vogue for European name variants, and the distinctive Kr- spelling helped it stand apart from the more common Christina and Christine.
Two accomplished performers have given the name contemporary visibility. Kristin Davis (born 1965) is an American actress whose three-decade career has produced multiple defining roles, particularly her 1998–2004 lead as Charlotte York Goldenblatt on HBO's Sex and the City. Kristin Chenoweth (born 1968) is an American actress and singer whose career has produced one Tony Award — the 1999 Best Featured Actress in a Musical for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown — and one Primetime Emmy Award.
Kristin first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1967 and peaked in 1981 at rank #31, accumulating over 144,000 top-1000 births across its tracked run. It left the top-1000 after 2008, when it sat at #880. The name occupies a distinct generational niche — most associated with women born between roughly 1965 and 1990 — which gives it a clean, late-20th-century professional quality. The recorded variant is Kristan.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Kristin
US Popularity History (1967–2008)
Annual US births named Kristin by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1981 with 9,737 girls named Kristin (girl rank #31 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2008, ranked #880 for girls (317 US births). That's 849 places below its 1981 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.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Kristin Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2005–2014 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Kristin the strongest states are South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | #498 | 39 |
| 2 | Arkansas | #526 | 18 |
| 3 | Mississippi | #541 | 18 |
| 4 | Tennessee | #576 | 50 |
| 5 | Maryland | #605 | 27 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | #611 | 47 |
| 7 | Kentucky | #620 | 29 |
| 8 | Missouri | #630 | 41 |
| 9 | Louisiana | #637 | 31 |
| 10 | Arizona | #650 | 36 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington | #836 | 29 |
| 2 | California | #823 | 189 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #778 | 26 |
| 4 | New York | #775 | 170 |
| 5 | New Jersey | #771 | 62 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | #745 | 28 |
| 7 | Indiana | #736 | 62 |
| 8 | Illinois | #730 | 87 |
| 9 | Michigan | #719 | 61 |
| 10 | Colorado | #716 | 31 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2005–2014. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Kristin in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Famous People Named Kristin
2 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Kristin.
- Kristin Chenoweth — Stage Actress (1968)
- Kristin Davis — TV Actress (1965)
Looking for names like Kristin?
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 Kristin to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Kristin against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
Kristin Baby Name Ideas
- Wicked-Inspired Baby Names: The Coinages, the Keepers, and the Real Names Hiding in Oz
- Studio Ghibli-Inspired Baby Names: Real Names from a Beloved World
- Celebrity Baby Boy Names: A Trendy and Eclectic Selection
- 500 Sporty Girl Names Inspired By Women Soccer Players
- 25 Sweet Baby Names With Repeating Sounds
- Top 1000 Most Popular Girl Names In U.S. Of 2015
- 20 Awesomely Hipster Girl Names For Your Little Daughter
- 83 Traditional Indonesian Baby Girl Names
- 123 Unusual Baby Names After Great Swedish People
- Sounding Twin Baby Names That Rhyming
- 31 Precious Girl Names Inspired By Gemstones