Ciaran
Ciaran was given to 105 boys in 2025, #1,609 among boys’ names; 2,233 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,200 Americans named Ciaran and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 23.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ciaran by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ciaran mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ciaran is “a male given name from Irish.”
Also “a female given name from Irish.”
Borrowed from Irish Ciarán.
/ˈkɪɹən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ciaran?
#1,609 among boys’ names, 2025
Ciaran rose from #1,960 in 2015 to #1,609 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 38.6 to 61.5 per million.
110 babies in 2025, the peak
Ciaran peaked in 2025, when 110 babies were given it (105 boys, #1,609 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 93 boys.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 105 | #1,609 | 61.5 |
| 2024 | 93 | #1,767 | 54.0 |
| 2023 | 82 | #1,914 | 47.9 |
| 2022 | 83 | #1,893 | 47.5 |
| 2021 | 71 | #2,064 | 40.6 |
| 2020 | 69 | #2,051 | 40.0 |
| 2019 | 61 | #2,269 | 34.0 |
| 2018 | 61 | #2,237 | 33.6 |
| 2017 | 60 | #2,217 | 32.4 |
| 2016 | 67 | #2,094 | 35.3 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 74 | #1,960 | 38.6 |
| 2014 | 83 | #1,798 | 43.2 |
| 2013 | 81 | #1,782 | 42.8 |
| 2012 | 61 | #2,175 | 32.2 |
| 2011 | 78 | #1,825 | 41.1 |
| 2010 | 62 | #2,148 | 32.3 |
| 2009 | 74 | #1,925 | 37.3 |
| 2008 | 79 | #1,841 | 38.7 |
| 2007 | 70 | #2,001 | 33.7 |
| 2006 | 63 | #2,085 | 30.7 |
| 2005 | 60 | #2,059 | 30.0 |
| 2004 | 65 | #1,880 | 32.7 |
| 2003 | 61 | #1,906 | 30.9 |
| 2002 | 47 | #2,221 | 24.2 |
| 2001 | 49 | #2,120 | 25.2 |
| 2000 | 41 | #2,337 | 20.9 |
| 1999 | 45 | #2,100 | 23.4 |
| 1998 | 48 | #1,989 | 25.1 |
| 1997 | 41 | #2,133 | 21.7 |
| 1996 | 36 | #2,254 | 19.0 |
| 1995 | 27 | #2,692 | 14.2 |
| 1994 | 38 | #2,121 | 19.7 |
| 1993 | 26 | #2,714 | 13.3 |
| 1992 | 17 | #3,628 | 8.5 |
| 1991 | 17 | #3,478 | 8.4 |
| 1990 | 8 | #5,912 | 3.9 |
| 1989 | 16 | #3,474 | 8.0 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,206 | 5.7 |
| 1987 | 12 | #3,760 | 6.4 |
| 1986 | 11 | #3,921 | 6.0 |
| 1984 | 7 | #5,064 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 5 | #6,535 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 7 | #4,924 | 4.1 |
| 1977 | 5 | #5,995 | 3.0 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,022 | 2.8 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,496 | 2.8 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,226 | 2.9 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,669 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ciaran a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,233 Americans recorded as Ciaran, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 5 girls and 105 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ciaran: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ciaran, and how old are they?
2,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,233 Americans ever recorded as Ciaran. The median Ciaran alive today is 15 years old; half are between 7 and 23.
The 2020 Census counted 2,229 people named Ciaran (118 women and girls, 2,111 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,718 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 30 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 221 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 952 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 988 |
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 Ciaran born?
The states with the most babies named Ciaran are New York, Massachusetts and California, with 44% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Massachusetts is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 10 | #1,140 | 1.9× |
| Massachusetts | 10 | #479 | 1.5× |
| California | 8 | #1,858 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 8 | #950 | 0.4× |
| Maryland | 7 | #640 | 0.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,271 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,308 | 0.2× |
| Connecticut | 5 | #507 | 0.2× |
| Oregon | 5 | #629 | 0.2× |
Where Ciaran is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ciaran is most over-represented in New York: since 1959 it was given 1.9 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 Ciaran 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 26,492 babies since 1880, Ciaran is the third most given (8.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 110 of their 1,110 babies (9.9%), again the third 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 Ciaran
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 Ciaran and names like it
- Compare Ciaran and KieranBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sCiaran peaked in 2025.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ciaran since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Ciaran: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Ciaran.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ciaran alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.