Kerrigan
Kerrigan is given to both girls and boys: 30 girls and 6 boys were given it in 2025 (#4,607 among girls’ names and #11,375 among boys’, #7,047 among all names counting both); 2,571 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,540 Americans named Kerrigan and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 11 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kerrigan by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kerrigan mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kerrigan is “a female given name from Irish.” Its etymology gives the senses “grandson/descendant of Ciaragán” (Ciaragáin) and “black” (ciar).
Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Ciaragáin (“grandson/descendant of Ciaragán”), a byname from a double diminutive of ciar (“black”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kerrigan?
#4,607 among girls’ names, 2025
Kerrigan fell from #2,021 in 2015 to #4,607 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 54.9 to 18.7 per million.
119 babies in 2013, the peak
Kerrigan peaked in 2013, when 119 babies were given it (112 girls, #1,820 among girls’ names). The 36 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 30% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 30 | #4,607 | 18.7 |
| 2024 | 36 | #4,079 | 22.2 |
| 2023 | 45 | #3,499 | 28.0 |
| 2022 | 34 | #4,251 | 20.7 |
| 2021 | 42 | #3,644 | 25.6 |
| 2020 | 51 | #3,118 | 31.5 |
| 2019 | 69 | #2,551 | 41.1 |
| 2018 | 78 | #2,351 | 45.9 |
| 2017 | 63 | #2,730 | 36.5 |
| 2016 | 79 | #2,375 | 44.6 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 98 | #2,021 | 54.9 |
| 2014 | 104 | #1,932 | 58.2 |
| 2013 | 112 | #1,820 | 63.8 |
| 2012 | 118 | #1,755 | 67.0 |
| 2011 | 95 | #2,049 | 54.0 |
| 2010 | 68 | #2,658 | 38.3 |
| 2009 | 85 | #2,302 | 46.3 |
| 2008 | 70 | #2,651 | 37.0 |
| 2007 | 69 | #2,664 | 35.9 |
| 2006 | 90 | #2,158 | 47.3 |
| 2005 | 84 | #2,191 | 45.5 |
| 2004 | 76 | #2,296 | 41.4 |
| 2003 | 87 | #2,050 | 47.6 |
| 2002 | 108 | #1,699 | 60.1 |
| 2001 | 113 | #1,622 | 62.8 |
| 2000 | 101 | #1,734 | 55.6 |
| 1999 | 82 | #1,926 | 46.2 |
| 1998 | 95 | #1,682 | 53.8 |
| 1997 | 87 | #1,751 | 50.0 |
| 1996 | 102 | #1,554 | 58.2 |
| 1995 | 36 | #3,177 | 20.5 |
| 1994 | 19 | #5,129 | 10.6 |
| 1993 | 8 | #10,061 | 4.4 |
| 1992 | 8 | #9,942 | 4.3 |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,783 | 3.7 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,929 | 3.5 |
| 1972 | 5 | #8,867 | 3.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kerrigan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,571 Americans recorded as Kerrigan, 96% are girls and 4% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kerrigan: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kerrigan, and how old are they?
2,540 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,571 Americans ever recorded as Kerrigan. The median Kerrigan alive today is 18 years old; half are between 11 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 2,283 people named Kerrigan (2,122 women and girls, 161 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,316 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 205 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,440 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 895 |
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 Kerrigan born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 5 | #1,522 | 0.4× |
Where Kerrigan is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kerrigan is most over-represented in Ohio: since 1972 it was given 1.3 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 girls’ 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 Kerrigan 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 3,029 babies since 1880, Kerrigan is the most given (85% of them). In 2025 it was given to 36 of their 42 babies (86%), 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 Kerrigan
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 Kerrigan and names like it
- Compare Kerrigan and KeriganBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKerrigan peaked in 2013.
- Ohio’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kerrigan since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Kerrigan: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2013The year the most babies were named Kerrigan.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kerrigan alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.