Holding steady, #6,446 for boys today.
Popularity of Cayne since 1993
Babies named Cayne per year in U.S. Social Security records. Raw births topped out in 2008, but relative to how few babies were recorded back then, Cayne's real moment was 2016.
Data table (by decade)
| Decade | Boys |
|---|---|
| 1990s | 49 |
| 2000s | 128 |
| 2010s | 177 |
| 2020s | 104 |
Meaning & origin
Cayne is a modern respelling of Caine, itself an anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Catháin, meaning 'descendant of Cathán', from the Gaelic 'cath' (battle). The name first appeared in U.S. Social Security records in 1993, reflecting a late 20th-century trend of reinventing traditional names with distinctive spellings. Because it is essentially a variant, Cayne does not have a long history of independent use; its trajectory has been stable, with no sharp rises or declines in popularity. Its peak year was 2016, and as of 2025 it ranked 6,446 nationally, given to approximately 1 in 131,390 newborn boys. The name has not been recorded in any U.S. top states, suggesting very dispersed usage. With its sharp, one-syllable sound and contemporary spelling, Cayne fits alongside similar modern coinages like Jace, Gage, and Tate.
Cayne is a modern, respelled variant of the name Caine, which itself is an anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Catháin (descendant of Cathán), from the Gaelic 'cath' meaning 'battle'. The spelling change to Cayne reflects a contemporary trend of modifying traditional names for a distinctive look. It first appeared in U.S. records in 1993 and has seen modest, stable usage since, likely as a creative alternative to similar-sounding names like Kane or Cade.
Nicknames & variants
Sibling names for Cayne
Names that share Cayne's style, for a brother or sister.
