Deacon
Deacon was given to 529 boys in 2025, #561 among boys’ names; 11,570 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 11,400 Americans named Deacon and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 6 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Deacon by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Deacon mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Deacon is “a male given name from English.”
English occupational surname for someone working in the household of a deacon.
Also as an English surname, variant of Dicken.
As an Irish surname, from Ó Deocáin, “descendant of Deocán.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Deacon?
#561 among boys’ names, 2025
Deacon fell from #453 in 2015 to #561 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.35 to 0.31 per 1,000.
734 babies in 2014, the peak
Deacon peaked in 2014, when 734 boys were given it, #420 among boys’ names. The 529 births of 2025 are 72% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 529 | #561 | 0.31 |
| 2024 | 540 | #552 | 0.31 |
| 2023 | 555 | #534 | 0.32 |
| 2022 | 573 | #517 | 0.33 |
| 2021 | 631 | #475 | 0.36 |
| 2020 | 555 | #516 | 0.32 |
| 2019 | 562 | #509 | 0.31 |
| 2018 | 605 | #485 | 0.33 |
| 2017 | 581 | #499 | 0.31 |
| 2016 | 651 | #469 | 0.34 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 669 | #453 | 0.35 |
| 2014 | 734 | #420 | 0.38 |
| 2013 | 656 | #438 | 0.35 |
| 2012 | 354 | #667 | 0.19 |
| 2011 | 358 | #657 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 336 | #693 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 353 | #686 | 0.18 |
| 2008 | 380 | #645 | 0.19 |
| 2007 | 386 | #630 | 0.19 |
| 2006 | 325 | #690 | 0.16 |
| 2005 | 240 | #801 | 0.12 |
| 2004 | 192 | #899 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 127 | #1,176 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 142 | #1,064 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 126 | #1,116 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 74 | #1,582 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 46 | #2,068 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 13 | #4,941 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 15 | #4,286 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 15 | #4,220 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,581 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 11 | #5,171 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 11 | #5,073 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,654 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 10 | #5,175 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 5 | #8,403 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,177 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,300 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,623 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,460 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 10 | #4,117 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 11 | #3,759 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,597 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 6 | #5,807 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 14 | #3,072 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 10 | #3,903 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 11 | #3,619 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 15 | #2,824 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 10 | #3,665 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 16 | #2,630 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 14 | #2,784 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 12 | #2,984 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,780 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,555 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 15 | #2,478 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Deacon a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Deacon has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Deacon: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Deacon, and how old are they?
11,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 11,570 Americans ever recorded as Deacon. The median Deacon alive today is 10 years old; half are between 6 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 7,805 people named Deacon (14 women and girls, 7,791 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,247 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 106 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 138 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,420 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,780 |
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 Deacon born?
The states with the most babies named Deacon are Texas, Ohio and Tennessee, with 19% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 40 | #703 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 32 | #353 | 1.5× |
| Tennessee | 25 | #352 | 1.7× |
| Florida | 24 | #668 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 23 | #464 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 22 | #461 | 1.0× |
| Indiana | 21 | #354 | 1.8× |
| Missouri | 18 | #352 | 1.3× |
| Wisconsin | 18 | #307 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 17 | #548 | 0.8× |
Where Deacon is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Deacon is most over-represented in Indiana: since 1971 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 Deacon 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 12,546 babies since 1880, Deacon is the most given (92% of them). In 2025 it was given to 529 of their 560 babies (94%), 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 Deacon
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 Deacon and names like it
- Compare Deacon and DeakonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sDeacon peaked in 2014.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Deacon since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Deacon: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Deacon.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Deacon alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with DMost given first.