Given name
Cailean
“a young woman; a lass”
Cailean is a variant of Cailin. One interpretation is “a young woman; a lass.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
Cailean is a variant of Cailin. One interpretation is “a young woman; a lass.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Cailean is a variant of Colin. An origin associated with Colin is Scottish.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
Possibly from Middle Irish Cuilén, from Old Irish cuilén (“pup, cub”), from Proto-Celtic *kolignos (“whelp”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1990. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cailean through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 85
- 68 boys · 17 girls
- Most popular year
- 1995
- 11 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 2014. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 11 in 1995. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 186 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cailean’s family of names
Cailean has a related form in Colin. Cailean has an English adaptation in Colin. Cailean has a related form in Cailin.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
If you love Cailean, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.