Cullen
A masculine name of Irish origin meaning "holly tree" or "good holm".
Name Census estimates that about 15,217 living Americans carry the first name Cullen. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Cullen today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cullen births was 2010 (685 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cullen. 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 Cullen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cullen is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 106 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 22,524 Americans
Peak year
2010
685 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,129
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cullen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,213 people with the first name Cullen, which placed it at #2,056 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
#2,056
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,213 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cullen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cullen is White at 85.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.7%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Cullen 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 Cullen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.8% · 11,332
- Two or more races4.7% · 625
- Black or African American3.9% · 517
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 490
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 178
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 71
Gender
Gender distribution for Cullen
Out of the 16,500 babies given the name Cullen since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Cullen as a male name
- Ranked #1,129 in 2024
- 187 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (679 births)
Cullen as a female name
- Ranked #17,043 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 2012 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cullen leans strongly male. 13,025 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 177 female bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Cullen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cullen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,104 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cullen 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 Cullen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cullens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Texas, Louisiana, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Cullen, while Vermont, Nebraska, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 274 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cullen
The name Cullen has its roots in the Gaelic language, originating from the Celtic regions of Ireland and Scotland. It is derived from the Irish Gaelic word "cuil," meaning "angle" or "corner," and the suffix "-an," indicating a diminutive form. The name likely referred to someone who lived in a remote or secluded area.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cullen can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient chronicle of medieval Irish history, where it is mentioned as a personal name in the 12th century. The name gained popularity in Ireland and Scotland during the Middle Ages and was often associated with families of Gaelic descent.
In the 13th century, a prominent Scottish nobleman named Cullen of Buchan is mentioned in historical records. He was a supporter of King Alexander III of Scotland and played a significant role in the political affairs of the time. Another notable figure bearing the name Cullen was Saint Cullen of Boyle, an Irish monk who lived in the 7th century and founded a monastery in County Roscommon, Ireland.
During the Renaissance period, the name Cullen was associated with several scholars and intellectuals. One such figure was Patrick Cullen (1503-1565), an Irish Franciscan friar and theologian who served as the Bishop of Clogher and played a prominent role in the Catholic Church's response to the Reformation.
In more recent times, the name Cullen has been carried by several notable individuals, including:
1. Thomas Cullen (1868-1953), an American gynecologist and pioneering cancer researcher who developed the Cullen's sign, a diagnostic tool for identifying ruptured ectopic pregnancies.
2. Countee Cullen (1903-1946), an influential African American poet and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance literary movement.
3. Cullen Jones (born 1984), an American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist who specialized in freestyle and butterfly events.
4. Cullen Bunn (born 1971), an American comic book writer known for his work on titles such as Uncanny X-Men, Deadpool, and Venom.
5. Cullen Douglas (born 1943), an American actor best known for his roles in television shows like Seinfeld and The Twilight Zone.
The name Cullen has maintained a consistent presence throughout history, with its origins rooted in the rich cultural heritage of the Celtic regions. While its popularity may have ebbed and flowed over time, it has left an indelible mark on various aspects of society, from literature and scholarship to sports and entertainment.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Cullen
People
Cullen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cullen 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
Cullen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cullen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 15,217 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cullen 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 22,524 US residents.
Is Cullen a common name?
We classify Cullen as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,500 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cullen most popular?
The single biggest year for Cullen was 2010, when 685 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cullen is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cullen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,213 people with the name Cullen, or 4.37 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,056 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 Cullen 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 Cullen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cullen leans strongly male. 13,025 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 177 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Cullen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cullen is White at 85.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.7%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Cullen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cullen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.8% (11,332 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 Cullen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cullen a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Cullen 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 Cullen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cullen 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 Cullen 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 Cullen?
You can see how many Americans are named Cullen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.