Gaylan
A feminine name of uncertain origin and meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 351 living Americans carry the first name Gaylan. It is a predominantly male name (91.3% of registrations). The average person named Gaylan today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gaylan births was 1952 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gaylan. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Gaylan is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Gaylans were born before 1967.
People living today
351
~ 1 in 976,508 Americans
Peak year
1952
37 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1995 SSA rank
#6,101
Tracked since 1924
Census
Gaylan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 507 people with the first name Gaylan, which placed it at #20,390 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
#20,390
National first-name rank
People counted
507
507 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gaylan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gaylan is White at 78.3%. The next largest groups are Black (12.8%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Gaylan 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 Gaylan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.3% · 397
- Black or African American12.8% · 65
- Two or more races4.3% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Gaylan
Gaylan leans heavily male at 91.3% of total registrations, but 46 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Gaylan as a male name
- Ranked #6,595 in 1995
- 8 male births in 1995
- Peak: 1952 (31 births)
Gaylan as a female name
- Ranked #6,101 in 1963
- 6 female births in 1963
- Peak: 1950 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gaylan on both sides of the split. Of the 502 people counted with this name, 381 were male (75.9%) and 121 were female (24.1%).
Popularity
Gaylan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gaylan from the 1920s through to the 1990s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 192 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gaylan 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 Gaylan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Gaylans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Gaylan
The name Gaylan has its origins in the Turkish language and culture. It is a masculine given name derived from the Turkish word "gay," which means joyous or happy, and the suffix "-lan," which is a common Turkish name ending.
In the 13th century, the name appeared in historical records and manuscripts from the Ottoman Empire, where it was used primarily by Turkish families residing in Anatolia, the region that encompasses much of modern-day Turkey.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Gaylan can be found in the writings of the 13th-century Turkish poet and scholar, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, who mentioned a man named Gaylan in his famous work, the Masnavi.
During the Ottoman Empire's expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries, the name Gaylan became more widespread, particularly among Turkish families living in the Balkans and other regions under Ottoman rule.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Gaylan. One such figure was Gaylan al-Dimashqi, a 10th-century Arab philosopher and scholar from Damascus, who wrote extensively on logic and metaphysics.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Gaylan Ergin, a 20th-century Turkish linguist and philologist who was born in 1900 and made significant contributions to the study of the Turkish language and its evolution.
In the realm of sports, Gaylan Nazhad was an Iraqi footballer who played as a striker for the Iraqi national team in the 1960s and 1970s, and is considered one of the greatest players in the country's history.
The name Gaylan also found its way into literature, with Gaylan Chernenko being a character in the 1988 novel "The Fourth Man" by Glen Savan, a satirical work exploring the dynamics of the Cold War era.
Lastly, Gaylan Güngör was a Turkish businessman and entrepreneur who founded one of the largest construction companies in Turkey, Güngör Holding, and played a significant role in the country's infrastructure development during the late 20th century.
People
Gaylan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gaylan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gaylan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gaylan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 351 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gaylan 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 976,508 US residents.
Is Gaylan a common name?
We classify Gaylan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 527 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gaylan most popular?
The single biggest year for Gaylan was 1952, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gaylan is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gaylan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 507 people with the name Gaylan, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,390 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 Gaylan 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 Gaylan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Gaylan on both sides of the split. Of the 502 people counted with this name, 381 were male (75.9%) and 121 were female (24.1%). 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 Gaylan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gaylan is White at 78.3%. The next largest groups are Black (12.8%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). 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 Gaylan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Gaylan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.3% (397 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 Gaylan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gaylan a male name?
Yes, 91.3% of people registered as Gaylan 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 Gaylan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gaylan 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 Gaylan 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 Gaylan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.