Deklan
A Gaelic variant of the Anglo-Saxon name Declan meaning "man of prayers".
Name Census estimates that about 2,408 living Americans carry the first name Deklan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Deklan today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Deklan births was 2018 (193 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Deklan. 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 Deklan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Deklan 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
2.4K
~ 1 in 142,340 Americans
Peak year
2018
193 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,878
Tracked since 1998
Census
Deklan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,709 people with the first name Deklan, which placed it at #8,485 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
#8,485
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,709 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Deklan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Deklan is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Deklan 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 Deklan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 1,435
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 118
- Two or more races6.4% · 109
- Black or African American1.5% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 10
Popularity
Deklan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Deklan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,535 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Deklan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Deklan 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 Deklan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Deklans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Deklan, while West Virginia, New Hampshire, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 43 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Deklan
The given name Deklan is a relatively recent invention, having no clear linguistic or cultural origin. It appears to be a modern variant of the Irish name Declan, which derived from the Gaelic words "decc" meaning "whole, perfect" and "lan" meaning "full, complete."
The earliest recorded instance of the name Declan dates back to the 5th century AD when Saint Declan, also known as Deoclán or Declán, was a prominent Irish saint and one of the first bishops of Ardmore in County Waterford, Ireland. He is credited with establishing a monastic school and church in Ardmore, which became an important center of learning in the region.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Declan was primarily used in Ireland and parts of Scotland influenced by Irish culture. It experienced a resurgence in popularity in the late 20th century, leading to the emergence of the variant spelling Deklan.
Notable historical figures named Declan or Deklan include:
1. Saint Declan (5th century AD), the Irish saint and early bishop of Ardmore.
2. Declan Kidney (born 1959), former Irish rugby union player and coach.
3. Declan McManus (born 1954), Scottish singer and songwriter better known by his stage name Elvis Costello.
4. Declan Masterson (1938-2020), Irish actor best known for his roles in films like The Commitments and Braveheart.
5. Declan Donnellan (born 1963), English theater director and co-founder of the Cheek by Jowl theater company.
While the variant spelling Deklan is a more recent invention, it draws upon the historical roots of the Irish name Declan, which has been in use for over 1,500 years and is associated with the early Christian history of Ireland.
People
Deklan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Deklan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Deklan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Deklan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,408 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Deklan 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 142,340 US residents.
Is Deklan a common name?
We classify Deklan as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,427 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Deklan most popular?
The single biggest year for Deklan was 2018, when 193 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Deklan 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 Deklan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,709 people with the name Deklan, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,485 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 Deklan 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 Deklan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Deklan leans strongly male. 1,685 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 20 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Deklan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Deklan is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Deklan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Deklan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (1,435 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 Deklan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Deklan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Deklan 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 Deklan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Deklan 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 Deklan 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 have Deklan as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Deklan, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.