Callaghan
An Irish Gaelic name meaning "bright-headed" or "bright prince".
Name Census estimates that about 386 living Americans carry the first name Callaghan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Callaghan today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Callaghan births was 2022 (51 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Callaghan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Callaghan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
386
~ 1 in 887,965 Americans
Peak year
2022
51 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,460
Tracked since 1994
Census
Callaghan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 290 people with the first name Callaghan, which placed it at #30,183 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#30,183
National first-name rank
People counted
290
290 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Callaghan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Callaghan is White at 87.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.5%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Callaghan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Callaghan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.2% · 253
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 16
- Two or more races3.8% · 11
- Black or African American1.7% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Callaghan
Callaghan leans heavily male at 85.4% of total registrations, but 57 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Callaghan as a male name
- Ranked #3,460 in 2024
- 33 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (39 births)
Callaghan as a female name
- Ranked #11,267 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Callaghan on both sides of the split. Of the 280 people counted with this name, 199 were male (71.1%) and 81 were female (28.9%).
Popularity
Callaghan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Callaghan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 183 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Callaghan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Callaghan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Callaghans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Callaghan
The name Callaghan has its origins in the Gaelic language and culture of Ireland. It is derived from the Irish surname "Ó Gallchobhair," which means "descendant of the foreign helper or auxiliary." The name can be traced back to the 12th century in County Donegal, Ireland.
Callaghan is believed to have been derived from the Old Irish words "gall" (meaning "foreigner" or "stranger") and "cobhair" (meaning "help" or "assistance"). This suggests that the name may have been given to someone who provided aid or assistance to foreigners or strangers.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Callaghan is found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In the year 1233, a man named Domnall Ó Gallchobhair is mentioned as the Bishop of Raphoe in County Donegal.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the first name Callaghan. One of the most famous was Sir Arthur Callaghan (1907-1991), a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979. Another prominent figure was Callaghan McCarty (1930-2003), an American biochemist who made significant contributions to the understanding of DNA and RNA.
In the realm of literature, Callaghan O'Hara was a fictional character in the novel "The Green Hills of Earth" by Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1951. The character was a spaceship engineer and one of the first settlers on the planet Ganymede.
Other notable individuals with the first name Callaghan include Callaghan McCarthy (1925-2021), an Irish actor and playwright, and Callaghan MacDonald (born 1960), a Canadian actress known for her roles in television series like "The X-Files" and "Battlestar Galactica."
While the name Callaghan has its roots in Ireland, it has been adopted and used in various cultures around the world, particularly in English-speaking countries with strong Irish heritage and connections.
People
Callaghan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Callaghan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Callaghan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Callaghan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 386 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Callaghan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 887,965 US residents.
Is Callaghan a common name?
We classify Callaghan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 390 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Callaghan most popular?
The single biggest year for Callaghan was 2022, when 51 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Callaghan is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Callaghan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 290 people with the name Callaghan, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,183 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Callaghan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Callaghan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Callaghan on both sides of the split. Of the 280 people counted with this name, 199 were male (71.1%) and 81 were female (28.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Callaghan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Callaghan is White at 87.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.5%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Callaghan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Callaghan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.2% (253 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Callaghan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Callaghan a male name?
Yes, 85.4% of people registered as Callaghan in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Callaghan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Callaghan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Callaghan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Callaghan?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Callaghan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.