Athan
Athan was given to 48 boys in 2025, #2,678 among boys’ names; 2,173 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,120 Americans named Athan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 9 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Athan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Athan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Athan is “a male given name, rather uncommon.” Its etymology gives the senses “my Nathan” (of) and “mine Athan” (as).
Perhaps from Nathan, via rebracketing of “my Nathan” as “mine Athan”; compare Ned, derived from Ed via rebracketing in the opposite direction.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Athan?
#2,678 among boys’ names, 2025
Athan fell from #1,718 in 2015 to #2,678 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 47.0 to 28.1 per million.
123 babies in 2012, the peak
Athan peaked in 2012, when 123 boys were given it, #1,367 among boys’ names. The 48 births of 2025 are 39% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 48 | #2,678 | 28.1 |
| 2024 | 61 | #2,315 | 35.4 |
| 2023 | 73 | #2,049 | 42.7 |
| 2022 | 63 | #2,270 | 36.1 |
| 2021 | 62 | #2,254 | 35.4 |
| 2020 | 59 | #2,294 | 34.2 |
| 2019 | 68 | #2,110 | 37.9 |
| 2018 | 62 | #2,211 | 34.1 |
| 2017 | 83 | #1,809 | 44.8 |
| 2016 | 90 | #1,724 | 47.4 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 90 | #1,718 | 47.0 |
| 2014 | 101 | #1,565 | 52.6 |
| 2013 | 105 | #1,529 | 55.5 |
| 2012 | 123 | #1,367 | 64.8 |
| 2011 | 109 | #1,485 | 57.4 |
| 2010 | 104 | #1,543 | 54.2 |
| 2009 | 104 | #1,561 | 52.4 |
| 2008 | 95 | #1,633 | 46.6 |
| 2007 | 77 | #1,862 | 37.1 |
| 2006 | 83 | #1,698 | 40.4 |
| 2005 | 55 | #2,181 | 27.5 |
| 2004 | 46 | #2,419 | 23.2 |
| 2003 | 39 | #2,577 | 19.7 |
| 2002 | 32 | #2,885 | 16.5 |
| 2001 | 28 | #3,144 | 14.4 |
| 2000 | 38 | #2,475 | 19.3 |
| 1999 | 20 | #3,709 | 10.4 |
| 1998 | 8 | #6,895 | 4.2 |
| 1997 | 13 | #4,677 | 6.9 |
| 1996 | 8 | #6,536 | 4.2 |
| 1995 | 9 | #5,952 | 4.7 |
| 1994 | 6 | #7,849 | 3.1 |
| 1993 | 5 | #8,783 | 2.5 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,486 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 5 | #8,193 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 11 | #4,541 | 5.5 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,479 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 12 | #3,740 | 6.4 |
| 1986 | 11 | #3,895 | 6.0 |
| 1985 | 13 | #3,417 | 7.0 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,542 | 4.5 |
| 1982 | 9 | #4,259 | 5.0 |
| 1981 | 12 | #3,427 | 6.7 |
| 1980 | 10 | #3,859 | 5.6 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,121 | 2.9 |
| 1978 | 5 | #5,859 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 8 | #4,203 | 4.9 |
| 1976 | 6 | #4,975 | 3.8 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,218 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,726 | 5.1 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,643 | 4.9 |
| 1967 | 7 | #3,252 | 4.0 |
| 1966 | 5 | #3,979 | 2.8 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,660 | 2.9 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,673 | 2.8 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,026 | 2.3 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,018 | 2.3 |
| 1948 | 5 | #3,710 | 2.8 |
| 1946 | 6 | #3,197 | 3.7 |
| 1924 | 6 | #3,902 | 5.3 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,024 | 5.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Athan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Athan has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 61 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Athan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Athan, and how old are they?
2,120 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,173 Americans ever recorded as Athan. The median Athan alive today is 14 years old; half are between 9 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 1,670 people named Athan (13 women and girls, 1,657 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,779 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 22 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 62 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 115 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 961 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 958 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Athan born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 17 | #1,219 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,644 | 0.6× |
Where Athan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Athan is most over-represented in California: since 1917 it was given 1.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Athan with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 3,408 babies since 1880, Athan is the most given (64% of them). In 2025 it was given to 48 of their 122 babies (39%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Athan
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Athan and names like it
- Compare Athan and AthenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAthan peaked in 2012.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Athan since 1910.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Athan.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Athan alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.