Quinlan
An Irish name derived from the Gaelic Ó Cuinneagáin meaning "descendant of Cuinneagán".
Name Census estimates that about 3,199 living Americans carry the first name Quinlan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Quinlan today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Quinlan births was 2006 (174 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Quinlan. 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 Quinlan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 107,144 Americans
Peak year
2006
174 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,659
Tracked since 1977
Census
Quinlan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,824 people with the first name Quinlan, which placed it at #5,868 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
#5,868
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,824 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Quinlan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quinlan is White at 76.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and Black (6.8%). 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 Quinlan 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 Quinlan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.9% · 2,173
- Two or more races7.5% · 211
- Black or African American6.8% · 192
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 160
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 74
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Quinlan
Quinlan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,245 total registrations, 2,532 (78.0%) were male and 713 (22.0%) were female.
Quinlan as a male name
- Ranked #3,659 in 2024
- 31 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (144 births)
Quinlan as a female name
- Ranked #11,872 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (48 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Quinlan on both sides of the split. Of the 2,819 people counted with this name, 2,167 were male (76.9%) and 652 were female (23.1%).
Popularity
Quinlan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Quinlan from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,363 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Quinlan 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 Quinlan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Quinlans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Quinlan, while South Carolina, Missouri, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Quinlan
The name Quinlan is of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic words "cuinn" meaning "chief" and "leann" meaning "cloak" or "mantle." It is believed to have first emerged in the 12th century as a surname for descendants of a prominent chieftain or leader who wore a distinctive cloak or mantle.
In its earliest recorded use, the name Quinlan appeared as a surname in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the early 17th century. The text mentions several notable figures with the surname Quinlan, including Amhlaoibh Ó Cuinn, a 13th-century poet and historian.
As a given name, Quinlan is thought to have gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly among Irish-American families seeking to honor their heritage. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name being used as a first name is Quinlan Terry, a British architect born in 1937.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Quinlan. One of the most famous was Quinlan Robertson (1904-1971), an American actor and playwright who appeared in numerous Broadway productions and Hollywood films during the mid-20th century.
Another noteworthy figure was Quinlan D. Thompson Jr. (1934-2005), an American lawyer and civil rights activist who played a pivotal role in desegregating public schools in Virginia in the 1960s.
In the realm of sports, Quinlan Vos (born 1985) is a South African rugby union player who has represented his country in several international competitions.
The name Quinlan has also been associated with literary figures, such as Quinlan McGrath (1944-2013), an Irish-American author and screenwriter known for works like "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" and "Wagons East."
Finally, Quinlan Shemski (born 1991) is a contemporary American artist and sculptor whose works have been exhibited in galleries across the United States and Europe.
People
Quinlan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Quinlan 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
Quinlan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Quinlan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,199 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Quinlan 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 107,144 US residents.
Is Quinlan a common name?
We classify Quinlan as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,245 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Quinlan most popular?
The single biggest year for Quinlan was 2006, when 174 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Quinlan 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 Quinlan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,824 people with the name Quinlan, or 0.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,868 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 Quinlan 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 Quinlan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Quinlan on both sides of the split. Of the 2,819 people counted with this name, 2,167 were male (76.9%) and 652 were female (23.1%). 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 Quinlan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Quinlan is White at 76.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.5%) and Black (6.8%). 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 Quinlan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Quinlan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.9% (2,173 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 Quinlan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Quinlan a male name?
Yes, 78.0% of people registered as Quinlan 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 Quinlan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Quinlan 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 Quinlan 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 named Quinlan?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.