Finnegan
Finnegan was given to 569 boys in 2025, #526 among boys’ names; 13,115 Americans have been recorded with it since 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 13,000 Americans named Finnegan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Finnegan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Finnegan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Finnegan is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “descendant of Fionnagán” (Fionnagáin).
Borrowed from Irish Ó Fionnagáin (“descendant of Fionnagán”). Fionnagán is a given name that descends from Old Irish Finnacán, which is typically anglicised as Finnegan itself.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Finnegan?
#526 among boys’ names, 2025
Finnegan fell from #405 in 2015 to #526 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.40 to 0.33 per 1,000.
865 babies in 2021, the peak
Finnegan peaked in 2021, when 865 babies were given it (860 boys, #378 among boys’ names). The 575 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 66% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 569 | #526 | 0.33 |
| 2024 | 626 | #494 | 0.36 |
| 2023 | 611 | #491 | 0.36 |
| 2022 | 697 | #446 | 0.40 |
| 2021 | 860 | #378 | 0.49 |
| 2020 | 724 | #409 | 0.42 |
| 2019 | 713 | #431 | 0.40 |
| 2018 | 770 | #412 | 0.42 |
| 2017 | 763 | #410 | 0.41 |
| 2016 | 816 | #393 | 0.43 |
Every recorded year (31)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 765 | #405 | 0.40 |
| 2014 | 632 | #464 | 0.33 |
| 2013 | 610 | #459 | 0.32 |
| 2012 | 548 | #489 | 0.29 |
| 2011 | 550 | #480 | 0.29 |
| 2010 | 467 | #544 | 0.24 |
| 2009 | 484 | #546 | 0.24 |
| 2008 | 377 | #649 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 366 | #655 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 264 | #785 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 204 | #888 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 144 | #1,096 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 142 | #1,089 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 68 | #1,707 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 72 | #1,634 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 86 | #1,433 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 40 | #2,273 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 25 | #3,129 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 6 | #8,503 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 5 | #9,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 7 | #7,244 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Finnegan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Finnegan has been given almost only to boys: 104 girls in 31 years of records.
Girls and boys named Finnegan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Finnegan, and how old are they?
13,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 13,115 Americans ever recorded as Finnegan. The median Finnegan alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 8,559 people named Finnegan (110 women and girls, 8,449 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,095 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 12 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,820 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,170 |
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 Finnegan born?
The states with the most babies named Finnegan are Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania, with 22% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 41 | #299 | 1.2× |
| New York | 39 | #436 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 35 | #321 | 1.6× |
| Michigan | 35 | #280 | 1.2× |
| Massachusetts | 25 | #241 | 1.7× |
| California | 22 | #996 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 20 | #502 | 1.3× |
| Wisconsin | 20 | #291 | 1.7× |
| Washington | 19 | #386 | 1.8× |
| Virginia | 19 | #417 | 1.1× |
Where Finnegan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Finnegan is most over-represented in Maine: since 1995 it was given 3.6 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 Finnegan 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 14,468 babies since 1880, Finnegan is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 575 of their 625 babies (92%), 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 Finnegan
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 Finnegan and names like it
- Compare Finnegan and FinniganBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sFinnegan peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Finnegan since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Finnegan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Finnegan.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Finnegan alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with FMost given first.