Keenan
Keenan was given to 149 boys in 2025, #1,307 among boys’ names; 18,515 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 17,600 Americans named Keenan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 29 years old and half are between 19 and 37.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Keenan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Keenan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Keenan is “a male given name from Irish.”
From Irish Cianán, a diminutive of Cian.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Keenan?
#1,307 among boys’ names, 2025
Keenan fell from #932 in 2015 to #1,307 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.12 to 0.09 per 1,000.
726 babies in 1997, the peak
Keenan peaked in 1997, when 726 babies were given it (717 boys, #354 among boys’ names). The 149 births of 2025 are 21% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 149 | #1,307 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 167 | #1,216 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 188 | #1,125 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 181 | #1,150 | 0.10 |
| 2021 | 204 | #1,052 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 216 | #988 | 0.13 |
| 2019 | 228 | #944 | 0.13 |
| 2018 | 231 | #923 | 0.13 |
| 2017 | 234 | #914 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 274 | #830 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 227 | #932 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 278 | #820 | 0.14 |
| 2013 | 209 | #957 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 237 | #885 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 263 | #826 | 0.14 |
| 2010 | 300 | #753 | 0.16 |
| 2009 | 310 | #746 | 0.16 |
| 2008 | 318 | #727 | 0.16 |
| 2007 | 364 | #658 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 394 | #607 | 0.19 |
| 2005 | 381 | #593 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 382 | #584 | 0.19 |
| 2003 | 382 | #579 | 0.19 |
| 2002 | 364 | #587 | 0.19 |
| 2001 | 377 | #557 | 0.19 |
| 2000 | 411 | #532 | 0.21 |
| 1999 | 446 | #492 | 0.23 |
| 1998 | 492 | #457 | 0.26 |
| 1997 | 717 | #354 | 0.38 |
| 1996 | 595 | #397 | 0.31 |
| 1995 | 623 | #381 | 0.33 |
| 1994 | 590 | #394 | 0.31 |
| 1993 | 613 | #379 | 0.31 |
| 1992 | 652 | #363 | 0.33 |
| 1991 | 667 | #359 | 0.33 |
| 1990 | 592 | #390 | 0.29 |
| 1989 | 395 | #481 | 0.20 |
| 1988 | 333 | #502 | 0.17 |
| 1987 | 289 | #531 | 0.15 |
| 1986 | 274 | #539 | 0.15 |
| 1985 | 272 | #529 | 0.15 |
| 1984 | 212 | #581 | 0.12 |
| 1983 | 225 | #562 | 0.13 |
| 1982 | 171 | #670 | 0.09 |
| 1981 | 167 | #667 | 0.09 |
| 1980 | 181 | #646 | 0.10 |
| 1979 | 146 | #716 | 0.08 |
| 1978 | 131 | #740 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 115 | #801 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 128 | #738 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 126 | #744 | 0.08 |
| 1974 | 113 | #764 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 102 | #789 | 0.07 |
| 1972 | 104 | #785 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 98 | #819 | 0.06 |
| 1970 | 110 | #786 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 84 | #838 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 66 | #889 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 79 | #815 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 93 | #759 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 69 | #886 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 92 | #785 | 0.05 |
| 1963 | 120 | #715 | 0.06 |
| 1962 | 97 | #772 | 0.05 |
| 1961 | 60 | #1,008 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 106 | #750 | 0.05 |
| 1959 | 68 | #933 | 0.03 |
| 1958 | 66 | #939 | 0.03 |
| 1957 | 45 | #1,157 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 10 | #2,713 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 31 | #1,386 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 18 | #1,857 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 17 | #1,926 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 11 | #2,439 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 13 | #2,194 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 13 | #2,154 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 12 | #2,278 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #2,526 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 18 | #1,819 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 13 | #2,089 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 10 | #2,321 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,077 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Keenan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 18,515 Americans recorded as Keenan, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 149 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Keenan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Keenan, and how old are they?
17,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 18,515 Americans ever recorded as Keenan. The median Keenan alive today is 29 years old; half are between 19 and 37.
The 2020 Census counted 14,676 people named Keenan (363 women and girls, 14,313 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,845 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 7 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 603 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,600 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 6,540 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,130 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,780 |
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 Keenan born?
The states with the most babies named Keenan are Texas, California and North Carolina, with 39% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 13 | #1,448 | 0.7× |
| California | 8 | #1,921 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #977 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 7 | #932 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,170 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,290 | 0.9× |
| Colorado | 6 | #810 | 1.4× |
| New York | 5 | #1,905 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,381 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,075 | 1.1× |
Where Keenan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Keenan is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1942 it was given 2.4 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 Keenan 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 30,827 babies since 1880, Keenan is the most given (60% of them). In 2025 it was given to 149 of their 403 babies (37%), the second most given that year.
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 Keenan
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 Keenan and names like it
- Compare Keenan and KenanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKeenan peaked in 1997.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Keenan since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Keenan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1997The year the most babies were named Keenan.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Keenan alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.