Kirk

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Greg in US United States, GB United Kingdom, AU Australia and 19 more, Gregg in ES Spain, ZA South Africa, PL Poland and Craig in TH Thailand.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Kirk is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name68K records spelled Kirk6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, Colombia

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Kįrk, Kìrk

• German given name13K records spelled Kirk2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom

  Also written Kįrk

74 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Kirk is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, dweller by the church; from ON kirkja; first attested Reginald Attekireke 1209 FFL

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• from northern Middle English, Danish kirk ‘church’ (Old Norse kirkja), a topographic name for someone who lived near a church.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Transferred use of the surname, originally a northern English and Scottish local name for someone who lived near a church (from Old Norse kirkja). Recent use has probably been influenced to some extent by the film actor Kirk Douglas, born in 1916 as Issur Danielovich Demsky.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, A church.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, James Tiberius, Star Trek captain;

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 136 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Kirk Douglasb. 1916USAmerican actor (1916–2020)
• Kirk Kerkorianb. 1917USAmerican businessman, investor, and philanthropist (1917–2015)
• Michael Douglasb. 1944USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor, producer and activist (born 1944)
• Kirk Hammettb. 1962USAmerican guitarist
• Kirk Wiseb. 1963USAmerican film director
• Kirk Jonesb. 1964GBBritish film director
• Andre Agassib. 1970USnot in their usual nameAmerican tennis player (born 1970)
• Kirk Cameronb. 1970USAmerican actor
• Kirk Acevedob. 1971USAmerican actor
• Kirk Baxterb. 1972AUAustralian film editor

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 529 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Kirk?

We estimate roughly 246 thousand people bear Kirk (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Kirk have the most bearers?

We estimate about 244 thousand people bear Kirk in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled greg.

How common is Kirk compared with other names?

In the United States, Kirk is the 149th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Kirk a male or female name?

Kirk is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Kirk mean?

Recorded meaning: person who lives near a church or works in a church