Callahan
Callahan was given to 1,566 boys in 2025, #227 among boys’ names; 7,031 Americans have been recorded with it since 1983 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,970 Americans named Callahan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 8.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Callahan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Callahan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Callahan is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From Irish Ó Ceallacháin, from Ceallachán, diminutive of the given name Ceallach. Doublet of Kelly and Kellogg.
/ˈkæləhæn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Callahan?
#227 among boys’ names, 2025
Callahan rose from #1,806 in 2015 to #227 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.04 to 0.92 per 1,000.
1,682 babies in 2025, the peak
Callahan peaked in 2025, when 1,682 babies were given it (1,566 boys, #227 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 908 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 116 | #1,748 | 1,566 | #227 |
| 2024 | 85 | #2,220 | 908 | #364 |
| 2023 | 67 | #2,624 | 665 | #461 |
| 2022 | 75 | #2,428 | 571 | #519 |
| 2021 | 51 | #3,168 | 410 | #660 |
| 2020 | 41 | #3,627 | 288 | #806 |
| 2019 | 50 | #3,181 | 244 | #899 |
| 2018 | 35 | #4,089 | 200 | #1,026 |
| 2017 | 32 | #4,410 | 166 | #1,142 |
| 2016 | 27 | #5,020 | 115 | #1,484 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 27 | #5,009 | 83 | #1,806 |
| 2014 | 21 | #6,025 | 77 | #1,888 |
| 2013 | 22 | #5,852 | 57 | #2,253 |
| 2012 | 24 | #5,582 | 47 | #2,599 |
| 2011 | 19 | #6,608 | 37 | #3,055 |
| 2010 | 16 | #7,593 | 43 | #2,794 |
| 2009 | 20 | #6,606 | 42 | #2,851 |
| 2008 | 20 | #6,601 | 41 | #2,885 |
| 2007 | 13 | #9,114 | 28 | #3,699 |
| 2006 | 17 | #7,207 | 35 | #3,096 |
| 2005 | 10 | #10,256 | 35 | #2,962 |
| 2004 | 23 | #5,401 | 41 | #2,602 |
| 2003 | 12 | #8,608 | 29 | #3,200 |
| 2002 | 16 | #6,750 | 27 | #3,270 |
| 2001 | 18 | #6,112 | 33 | #2,808 |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,250 | 36 | #2,574 |
| 1999 | 20 | #5,255 | 30 | #2,800 |
| 1998 | 14 | #6,764 | 26 | #3,025 |
| 1997 | 21 | #4,850 | 23 | #3,164 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,753 | 25 | #2,929 |
| 1995 | 10 | #8,171 | 11 | #5,166 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,371 | 13 | #4,565 |
| 1993 | 5 | #13,773 | 6 | #7,750 |
| 1992 | 5 | #13,589 | 14 | #4,126 |
| 1991 | 5 | #13,452 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 6 | #7,293 | |
| 1989 | 5 | #12,651 | 8 | #5,697 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,381 | 6 | #6,525 |
| 1987 | under 5 | 15 | #3,212 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 13 | #3,463 | |
| 1985 | under 5 | 5 | #6,654 | |
| 1983 | under 5 | 5 | #6,367 |
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 Callahan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 7,031 Americans recorded as Callahan, 14% are girls and 86% boys. In 2025 it went to 116 girls and 1,566 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Callahan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Callahan, and how old are they?
6,970 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 7,031 Americans ever recorded as Callahan. The median Callahan alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 8.
The 2020 Census counted 2,150 people named Callahan (557 women and girls, 1,593 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,250 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 192 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 821 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,960 |
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 Callahan born?
The states with the most babies named Callahan are Texas, Ohio and Michigan, with 19% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 139 | #297 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 85 | #161 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 75 | #132 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 74 | #302 | 0.5× |
| Missouri | 74 | #95 | 1.4× |
| California | 68 | #467 | 0.4× |
| New York | 67 | #276 | 0.4× |
| Wisconsin | 62 | #96 | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 62 | #223 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 60 | #150 | 1.1× |
Where Callahan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Callahan is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1983 it was given 1.8 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 Callahan 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 20,789 babies since 1880, Callahan is the second most given (34% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,682 of their 3,819 babies (44%), again the second 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 Callahan
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 Callahan and names like it
- Compare Callahan and CallanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCallahan peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Callahan since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Callahan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Callahan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Callahan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.