Callen
Callen is an English name of obscure origin, possibly a diminutive of the surname Callaghan.
Name Census estimates that about 9,405 living Americans carry the first name Callen. It sits at #477 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (93.8% of registrations). The average person named Callen today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Callen births was 2023 (721 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Callen. 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 Callen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Callen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
9.4K
~ 1 in 36,444 Americans
Peak year
2023
721 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#477
Tracked since 1954
Census
Callen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,072 people with the first name Callen, which placed it at #3,429 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
#3,429
National first-name rank
People counted
6.1K
6,072 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Callen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Callen is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.1%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Callen 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 Callen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.6% · 5,076
- Two or more races6.1% · 371
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 299
- Black or African American2.6% · 160
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 121
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 45
Gender
Gender distribution for Callen
Callen leans heavily male at 93.8% of total registrations, but 585 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Callen as a male name
- Ranked #477 in 2024
- 643 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (687 births)
Callen as a female name
- Ranked #5,456 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (34 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Callen leans strongly male. 5,572 people counted with this name were male (91.7%), compared with 502 female bearers (8.3%).
Popularity
Callen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Callen from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,923 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Callen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Callen 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 Callen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Callens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Texas, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Callen, while Nevada, Rhode Island, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 169 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Callen
The given name Callen has its origins in the Gaelic language, specifically the Irish and Scottish Gaelic dialects. It is believed to have emerged during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 8th centuries AD. The name is derived from the Irish word "callan," which means "young man" or "boy."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Callen can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In this text, a person named Callen Mac Scannlain is mentioned as having been involved in a battle in the year 1014 AD. This suggests that the name was in use among the Irish and Scottish Gaelic communities during that time.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Callen. One of the most prominent was Callen of Echtra, an Irish hero and warrior who lived in the 6th century AD. He is celebrated in the medieval Irish literary tradition for his bravery and exploits.
Another historical figure with the name Callen was Callen Mulrooney, an Irish poet and bard who lived in the 15th century. His works, which were written in the Gaelic language, are considered important examples of Irish literary heritage.
In the 16th century, there was a Scottish nobleman named Callen MacDonald, who was a member of the powerful Clan Donald and played a role in the conflicts between the Scottish clans and the English crown.
Moving forward to the 19th century, we find Callen Byrne, an Irish artist and painter who was born in 1819 and is renowned for his landscape paintings that captured the beauty of the Irish countryside.
Finally, in the 20th century, there was Callen O'Reilly, an Irish author and playwright who was born in 1905. His works dealt with themes of Irish identity, culture, and the struggles of the working class.
These examples demonstrate that the name Callen has a rich history and has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, including warriors, poets, nobility, artists, and writers, over the course of many centuries.
People
Callen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Callen 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
Callen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Callen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,405 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Callen 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 36,444 US residents.
Is Callen a common name?
We classify Callen as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,506 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Callen most popular?
The single biggest year for Callen was 2023, when 721 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Callen 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 Callen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,072 people with the name Callen, or 2.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,429 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 Callen 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 Callen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Callen leans strongly male. 5,572 people counted with this name were male (91.7%), compared with 502 female bearers (8.3%). 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 Callen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Callen is White at 83.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.1%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Callen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Callen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.6% (5,076 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 Callen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Callen a male name?
Yes, 93.8% of people registered as Callen 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 Callen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Callen 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 Callen 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 share the name Callen?
Find out how many Americans are named Callen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.