girl's name

Cailin

  • Gender Girl
  • Letters 6
  • Popularity Rare
  • Births on record 4,351

Northern Ireland

#531

2018 births

Cailin is a girl's name. In 2025 it was given to 7 babies in the United States. It is a rare choice.

  • Peaked in 1998, when 169 babies were given the name.
  • It has been falling over the past decade.
  • Today about 1 in 473,709 babies in the United States is given this name.
  • First appears in US birth records in 1968.

Cailin over time

Births per decade in the United States, 1960s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.

1,442
'60 '70 '80 '90 '00 '10 '20
Show the numbers
Births named Cailin by decade in the United States
Decade Births
1960s 9
1970s 53
1980s 423
1990s 1,092
2000s 1,442
2010s 604
2020s (to 2025) 120

How popular is Cailin?

In 2025, Cailin was given to 7 babies in the United States. It is a rare choice.

Where Cailin is used

Northern Ireland #531 3 in 2018
Ireland as Cailín #630 5 in 2023
Scotland #828 3 in 2015
Canada #2,098 10 in 2015
England & Wales #6,912 3 in 2020
United States #12,915 7 in 2025

The bar shows how near the top of each country's list the name sits, on a scale where #1 fills the row and #1,000 is a sliver. The figures beside it are the real rank and the babies recorded that year.

US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.

How Cailin is spelled

Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.

Spelling What it is Births on record
Cailín Cailín is a rare spelling of Cailin, written with a fada and recorded 5 times, mostly in Ireland. 5

Names that peaked alongside Cailin

These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.

Parents who like Cailin also like

Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Cailin over the last century — the same taste, a different name.

Sibling names for Cailin

Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Cailin — the two things that make a sibling set grate.

Common questions about Cailin

How popular is the name Cailin?

In 2025, Cailin was given to 7 babies in the United States. It is a rare choice.

Is Cailin a girl's or a boy's name?

Cailin is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.

When was Cailin most popular?

Cailin peaked in 1998, when 169 babies were given the name. It has been falling over the past decade.

Is Cailin a good name?

That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Cailin currently ranks #12,915 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.