Callan
Callan was given to 1,917 boys in 2025, #190 among boys’ names; 12,634 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,500 Americans named Callan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 5 years old and half are between 2 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Callan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Callan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Callan is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “descendant of Cathalán” (Cathaláin).
Borrowed from Irish Ó Cathaláin (“descendant of Cathalán”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Callan?
#190 among boys’ names, 2025
Callan rose from #687 in 2015 to #190 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.19 to 1.1 per 1,000.
1,983 babies in 2025, the peak
Callan peaked in 2025, when 1,983 babies were given it (1,917 boys, #190 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,455 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 66 | #2,616 | 1,917 | #190 |
| 2024 | 53 | #3,056 | 1,455 | #242 |
| 2023 | 60 | #2,828 | 983 | #339 |
| 2022 | 45 | #3,484 | 930 | #354 |
| 2021 | 52 | #3,122 | 868 | #374 |
| 2020 | 29 | #4,566 | 686 | #434 |
| 2019 | 25 | #5,183 | 542 | #525 |
| 2018 | 45 | #3,446 | 465 | #589 |
| 2017 | 31 | #4,495 | 365 | #684 |
| 2016 | 34 | #4,272 | 332 | #736 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 29 | #4,749 | 365 | #687 |
| 2014 | 29 | #4,794 | 384 | #668 |
| 2013 | 35 | #4,175 | 286 | #788 |
| 2012 | 31 | #4,627 | 263 | #830 |
| 2011 | 38 | #3,929 | 234 | #886 |
| 2010 | 25 | #5,451 | 153 | #1,180 |
| 2009 | 23 | #5,925 | 81 | #1,827 |
| 2008 | 34 | #4,472 | 83 | #1,794 |
| 2007 | 32 | #4,584 | 76 | #1,878 |
| 2006 | 23 | #5,747 | 50 | #2,453 |
| 2005 | 18 | #6,584 | 41 | #2,663 |
| 2004 | 28 | #4,721 | 54 | #2,162 |
| 2003 | 29 | #4,438 | 42 | #2,475 |
| 2002 | 26 | #4,654 | 44 | #2,337 |
| 2001 | 27 | #4,463 | 42 | #2,347 |
| 2000 | 32 | #3,892 | 29 | #2,999 |
| 1999 | 24 | #4,593 | 43 | #2,167 |
| 1998 | 33 | #3,579 | 37 | #2,351 |
| 1997 | 34 | #3,374 | 41 | #2,131 |
| 1996 | 39 | #3,031 | 19 | #3,557 |
| 1995 | 42 | #2,844 | 15 | #4,073 |
| 1994 | 40 | #2,935 | 17 | #3,764 |
| 1993 | 44 | #2,724 | 21 | #3,154 |
| 1992 | 35 | #3,219 | 21 | #3,118 |
| 1991 | 40 | #2,887 | 17 | #3,473 |
| 1990 | 41 | #2,803 | 21 | #2,962 |
| 1989 | 29 | #3,481 | 22 | #2,794 |
| 1988 | 50 | #2,247 | 22 | #2,610 |
| 1987 | 43 | #2,398 | 10 | #4,278 |
| 1986 | 34 | #2,784 | 23 | #2,368 |
| 1985 | 20 | #3,998 | 6 | #5,887 |
| 1984 | 11 | #5,945 | 10 | #3,950 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,162 | 8 | #4,561 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,371 | 12 | #3,513 |
| 1975 | under 5 | 6 | #4,864 | |
| 1973 | under 5 | 7 | #4,114 | |
| 1972 | under 5 | 6 | #4,503 | |
| 1963 | under 5 | 5 | #4,114 | |
| 1957 | under 5 | 5 | #4,059 |
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 Callan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 12,634 Americans recorded as Callan, 12% are girls and 88% boys. In 2025 it went to 66 girls and 1,917 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Callan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Callan, and how old are they?
12,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,634 Americans ever recorded as Callan. The median Callan alive today is 5 years old; half are between 2 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 5,479 people named Callan (1,146 women and girls, 4,333 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,611 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 7 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 17 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 701 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,750 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,000 |
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 Callan born?
The states with the most babies named Callan are California, Texas and Pennsylvania, with 21% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 165 | #235 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 159 | #262 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 90 | #140 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 86 | #159 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 85 | #243 | 0.5× |
| New York | 83 | #253 | 0.7× |
| Massachusetts | 82 | #86 | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 64 | #197 | 0.8× |
| Colorado | 62 | #115 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 57 | #206 | 0.8× |
Where Callan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Callan is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1957 it was given 1.6 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 Callan 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 42,267 babies since 1880, Callan is the most given (30% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,983 of their 4,550 babies (44%), 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 Callan
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 Callan and names like it
- Compare Callan and CallenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCallan peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Callan since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Callan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Callan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Callan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.