Quillen
A masculine Latin name referring to quilted fabric or embroidery.
Name Census estimates that about 63 living Americans carry the first name Quillen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Quillen today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Quillen births was 2020 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Quillen. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Quillen. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
63
~ 1 in 5,440,545 Americans
Peak year
2020
10 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,711
Tracked since 2001
Census
Quillen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 104 people with the first name Quillen, which placed it at #52,876 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
#52,876
National first-name rank
People counted
104
104 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Quillen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quillen is White at 74.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.7%) and Black (7.7%). 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 Quillen 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 Quillen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.0% · 77
- Two or more races8.7% · 9
- Black or African American7.7% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino6.7% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 3
Popularity
Quillen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Quillen from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 28 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Quillen 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 Quillen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Quillen
The given name Quillen has its roots in the ancient Celtic culture, originating from the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken in what is now Great Britain and parts of northwestern France. The name is believed to have derived from the proto-Celtic word "quillio," which meant "to strike" or "to beat," possibly referring to a warrior or a skilled craftsman.
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled as "Quillian" or "Quillien" and was primarily used by the ancient Britons who inhabited the region known as Britannia during the Roman occupation. Some historical records suggest that the name may have been mentioned in ancient bardic tales and folklore, although specific references are scarce.
One of the earliest documented instances of the name Quillen can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The record lists a landowner named Quillien in the county of Somerset, England.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, the name Quillen gained popularity among various noble families and landowners across Britain and parts of continental Europe. Notable historical figures who bore the name include:
1. Sir Quillen de Montfort (1235-1301), a Norman knight and military commander who fought in the Crusades and the Wars of Scottish Independence.
2. Quillen FitzRobert (1290-1348), an English nobleman and landowner from Gloucestershire, known for his involvement in the Hundred Years' War.
3. Quillen de Vere (1420-1492), a Flemish painter and illuminator renowned for his intricate manuscript illustrations commissioned by the Dukes of Burgundy.
4. Quillen Ap Rhys (1520-1585), a Welsh scholar and poet who contributed significantly to the preservation of Welsh literature and bardic traditions.
5. Quillen Macquarrie (1640-1707), a Scottish Jacobite soldier and member of the Clan Macquarrie, who fought in the Battle of Killiecrankie during the Jacobite Rising.
While the name Quillen has become relatively uncommon in modern times, it still holds historical significance and reflects the rich cultural heritage of the Celtic peoples who once inhabited the British Isles and parts of continental Europe.
People
Quillen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Quillen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Q
Other first names starting with Q with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Quillen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Quillen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 63 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Quillen 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 5,440,545 US residents.
Is Quillen a common name?
We classify Quillen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 64 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Quillen most popular?
The single biggest year for Quillen was 2020, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Quillen is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Quillen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 104 people with the name Quillen, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,876 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 Quillen 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 Quillen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Quillen on both sides of the split. Of the 106 people counted with this name, 81 were male (76.4%) and 25 were female (23.6%). 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 Quillen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quillen is White at 74.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.7%) and Black (7.7%). 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 Quillen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Quillen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.0% (77 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 Quillen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Quillen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Quillen 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 Quillen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Quillen 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 Quillen 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 Americans are named Quillen?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.