Callaghan
Callaghan is given to both girls and boys: 7 girls and 41 boys were given it in 2025 (#12,154 among girls’ names and #3,001 among boys’, #5,760 among all names counting both); 438 Americans have been recorded with it since 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Callaghan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Callaghan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Callaghan is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
Variant of Callahan
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Callaghan?
#3,001 among boys’ names, 2025
Callaghan rose from #10,884 in 2015 to #3,001 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 3.1 to 24.0 per million.
51 babies in 2022, the peak
Callaghan peaked in 2022, when 51 babies were given it (36 boys, #3,285 among boys’ names). The 48 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 94% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,154 | 41 | #3,001 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,311 | 33 | #3,468 |
| 2023 | 5 | #15,622 | 39 | #3,125 |
| 2022 | 15 | #7,340 | 36 | #3,285 |
| 2021 | 5 | #15,699 | 24 | #4,259 |
| 2020 | under 5 | 18 | #5,065 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 19 | #4,985 | |
| 2018 | 5 | #16,143 | 18 | #5,135 |
| 2017 | under 5 | 10 | #7,653 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 10 | #7,683 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | under 5 | 6 | #10,884 | |
| 2014 | under 5 | 9 | #8,241 | |
| 2013 | under 5 | 6 | #10,950 | |
| 2012 | under 5 | 7 | #9,856 | |
| 2011 | under 5 | 5 | #12,570 | |
| 2010 | under 5 | 5 | #12,526 | |
| 2009 | under 5 | 8 | #9,107 | |
| 2008 | under 5 | 8 | #9,120 | |
| 2006 | 5 | #17,603 | 7 | #9,713 |
| 2005 | 6 | #14,815 | 6 | #10,299 |
| 2003 | under 5 | 5 | #11,121 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 8 | #7,743 | |
| 2001 | under 5 | 5 | #10,800 | |
| 2000 | under 5 | 6 | #9,238 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 9 | #6,607 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 10 | #5,885 | |
| 1997 | 8 | #9,941 | 5 | #9,461 |
| 1996 | under 5 | 6 | #8,086 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 5 | #8,975 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Callaghan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 438 Americans recorded as Callaghan, 15% are girls and 85% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Callaghan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Callaghan, and how old are they?
An estimated 434 Americans named Callaghan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 16. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 280 people named Callaghan (81 women and girls, 199 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 210 born in the U.S. The Census count is 33% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Callaghan
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 Callaghan and names like it
- Compare Callaghan and OceanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCallaghan peaked in 2022.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Callaghan since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Callaghan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Callaghan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Callaghan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.