Keelan
A masculine name of Irish origin, meaning "slender" or "fair".
Name Census estimates that about 3,819 living Americans carry the first name Keelan. It is a predominantly male name (91.0% of registrations). The average person named Keelan today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keelan births was 2007 (152 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keelan. 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 Keelan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.8K
~ 1 in 89,750 Americans
Peak year
2007
152 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,194
Tracked since 1967
Census
Keelan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,054 people with the first name Keelan, which placed it at #5,561 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
#5,561
National first-name rank
People counted
3.1K
3,054 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keelan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keelan is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.0%) and Two or More Races (10.5%). 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 Keelan 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 Keelan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.2% · 1,656
- Black or African American26.0% · 795
- Two or more races10.5% · 322
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 189
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 61
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 31
Gender
Gender distribution for Keelan
Keelan leans heavily male at 91.0% of total registrations, but 351 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Keelan as a male name
- Ranked #2,194 in 2024
- 66 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (135 births)
Keelan as a female name
- Ranked #16,374 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2001 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keelan leans strongly male. 2,700 people counted with this name were male (88.2%), compared with 360 female bearers (11.8%).
Popularity
Keelan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keelan from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,288 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Keelan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keelan 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 Keelan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keelans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. Texas, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Keelan, while Washington, Kansas, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 59 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keelan
The name Keelan is derived from the Irish Gaelic name Caolán, which means "slender" or "lean". It is believed to have originated in Ireland during the medieval period, possibly as early as the 5th or 6th century AD.
The name is closely linked to Irish culture and heritage, with its roots tracing back to the ancient Gaelic language spoken in Ireland for centuries. The earliest recorded use of the name Keelan is found in Irish historical records and genealogies from the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest documented individuals with the name Keelan was Keelan of Glendalough, an Irish monk and scribe who lived in the 6th century AD. He is known for his contributions to the preservation of ancient Irish literature and religious texts at the Glendalough monastery.
Another notable figure in history with the name Keelan was Keelan O'Reilly, an Irish chieftain and leader of the O'Reilly clan in County Cavan, Ireland, during the 16th century. He played a significant role in the Irish Confederate Wars against English rule in the 1640s.
In the 19th century, Keelan Corrigan was an Irish-American labor leader and activist who fought for workers' rights and better working conditions in New York City. He was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1824 and later immigrated to the United States.
Keelan Foley was an Irish-born American baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox in the early 20th century. He was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1888 and had a career in Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1915.
Another notable figure with the name Keelan was Keelan Wynn, an Irish-American journalist and author who was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1937. He worked as a foreign correspondent for various publications and wrote several books about his experiences covering conflicts and global events.
Throughout history, the name Keelan has maintained its strong connection to Irish culture and heritage, with many individuals bearing this name making significant contributions in various fields, from religion and literature to politics and sports.
People
Keelan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keelan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Keelan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keelan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,819 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keelan 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 89,750 US residents.
Is Keelan a common name?
We classify Keelan as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,885 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keelan most popular?
The single biggest year for Keelan was 2007, when 152 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keelan is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keelan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,054 people with the name Keelan, or 1.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,561 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 Keelan 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 Keelan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keelan leans strongly male. 2,700 people counted with this name were male (88.2%), compared with 360 female bearers (11.8%). 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 Keelan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keelan is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Black (26.0%) and Two or More Races (10.5%). 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 Keelan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Keelan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.2% (1,656 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 Keelan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keelan a male name?
Yes, 91.0% of people registered as Keelan 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 Keelan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keelan 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 Keelan 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 Keelan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.