Dillon
A masculine name of Irish origin meaning "a loyal, steadfast follower".
Name Census estimates that about 64,154 living Americans carry the first name Dillon. It is a predominantly male name (98.5% of registrations). The average person named Dillon today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dillon births was 1992 (5,083 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dillon. 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 Dillon with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Dillon is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,004 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
64K
~ 1 in 5,343 Americans
Peak year
1992
5,083 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#868
Tracked since 1892
Census
Dillon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 57,536 people with the first name Dillon, which placed it at #820 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
#820
National first-name rank
People counted
58K
57,536 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
19.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dillon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dillon is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Black (4.8%). 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 Dillon 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 Dillon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.7% · 45,843
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 4,135
- Black or African American4.8% · 2,786
- Two or more races4.8% · 2,765
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 1,368
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 639
Gender
Gender distribution for Dillon
Dillon leans heavily male at 98.5% of total registrations, but 1,004 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dillon as a male name
- Ranked #868 in 2024
- 276 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1992 (5,063 births)
Dillon as a female name
- Ranked #3,228 in 2024
- 49 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (61 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dillon leans strongly male. 56,802 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 737 female bearers (1.3%).
Popularity
Dillon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dillon from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 32,840 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dillon 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 Dillon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dillons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Dillon, while District of Columbia, Delaware, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,234 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dillon
The name Dillon is an English given name derived from the Gaelic surname Ó Duilleáin, meaning "descendant of Duilleán". Duilleán itself is a diminutive of the Irish word duilleog, meaning "leaf" or "folio". The name likely originated in Ireland as a descriptive surname for a family associated with leaves or foliage.
The earliest recorded use of the name Dillon can be traced back to the 12th century in Ireland. It was initially a surname borne by an influential family of Norman descent who settled in County Westmeath. The family's ancestral seat was at Dillon's Grove near Kilcormac.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Dillon was Sir Henry Dillon (1277-1344), an Irish nobleman and military commander who served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland during the reign of Edward III. He played a significant role in the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland and was granted extensive lands in County Meath.
In the 16th century, James Dillon (1572-1648) was an Irish Catholic lawyer and landowner who served as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. He was a prominent figure in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and was later executed for his involvement.
Another notable figure was Arthur Dillon (1670-1733), a French-born Irish general who served in the French army during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was a member of the Jacobite Irish Brigade and played a crucial role in several battles against the English.
During the American Revolutionary War, Theodorick Bland Dillon (1733-1776) was an officer in the Continental Army. He served under General George Washington and was killed in action during the Battle of White Plains in 1776.
In the 19th century, John Dillon (1851-1927) was an Irish nationalist politician and a prominent leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party. He advocated for Irish home rule and played a significant role in the Irish independence movement.
The name Dillon has a rich history and has been borne by many notable figures throughout the centuries, particularly in Ireland and among the Irish diaspora. Its origins as a descriptive surname and its association with influential families and historical events have contributed to its enduring popularity as a given name.
People
Dillon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dillon 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
Dillon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dillon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 64,154 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dillon 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 5,343 US residents.
Is Dillon a common name?
We classify Dillon as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 65,968 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dillon most popular?
The single biggest year for Dillon was 1992, when 5,083 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dillon is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dillon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 57,536 people with the name Dillon, or 19.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #820 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 Dillon 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 Dillon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dillon leans strongly male. 56,802 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 737 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 Dillon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dillon is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.2%) and Black (4.8%). 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 Dillon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dillon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.7% (45,843 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 Dillon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dillon a male name?
Yes, 98.5% of people registered as Dillon 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 Dillon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dillon 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 Dillon 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 Dillon as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.