Ragan
An English masculine name derived from the Old English clan name "Reganhere".
Name Census estimates that about 2,149 living Americans carry the first name Ragan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 82.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Ragan today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ragan births was 1998 (89 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ragan. 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 Ragan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 159,495 Americans
Peak year
1998
89 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2021 SSA rank
#10,532
Tracked since 1923
Census
Ragan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,186 people with the first name Ragan, which placed it at #7,080 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
#7,080
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,186 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ragan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ragan is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) 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 Ragan 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 Ragan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.6% · 1,806
- Black or African American8.4% · 184
- Two or more races4.3% · 95
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 61
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Ragan
Ragan leans heavily female at 82.5% of total registrations, but 394 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ragan as a male name
- Ranked #10,532 in 2021
- 7 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1963 (14 births)
Ragan as a female name
- Ranked #13,101 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1998 (78 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ragan on both sides of the split. Of the 2,187 people counted with this name, 444 were male (20.3%) and 1,743 were female (79.7%).
Popularity
Ragan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ragan from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 648 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
Ragan 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 Ragan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ragans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Ragan, while Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ragan
The name Ragan is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the ancient Germanic peoples of Scandinavia, particularly in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. It is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word "regin," meaning "divine power" or "the gods."
During the Viking Age, which lasted from the late 8th century to the late 11th century, the name Ragan may have been used as a name for children born under auspicious circumstances or in honor of the Norse gods. The Vikings were known for their rich mythology and reverence for the divine powers that governed their lives.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ragan can be found in the Icelandic sagas, which are prose narratives that recount the lives and exploits of the Norse settlers in Iceland during the Middle Ages. These sagas were composed in the 13th and 14th centuries but often depict events from much earlier periods.
In the 9th century, there was a Viking chieftain named Ragan Lodbroksson, who was renowned for his bravery and military prowess. He was the son of the legendary Danish king, Ragnar Lodbrok, and is mentioned in several Icelandic sagas, including the Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok.
Another notable figure with the name Ragan was Ragan Ingimarsson, a Norwegian chieftain who lived in the 11th century. He is mentioned in the Heimskringla, a collection of sagas written by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.
In the 12th century, there was an Irish king named Ragan Ua Maíl Shechlainn, who ruled the Kingdom of Mide in central Ireland. He is mentioned in the Annals of Inisfallen, a chronicle of Irish history written by monks in the late 12th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Ragan seems to have fallen out of widespread use, but it resurfaced in the 20th century as a given name in various English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and Canada. It is possible that the name was reintroduced as a result of increased interest in Norse culture and Viking history.
People
Ragan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ragan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ragan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ragan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,149 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ragan 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 159,495 US residents.
Is Ragan a common name?
We classify Ragan as "Rare". It ranks above 94% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,254 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ragan most popular?
The single biggest year for Ragan was 1998, when 89 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ragan is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ragan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,186 people with the name Ragan, or 0.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,080 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 Ragan 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 Ragan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ragan on both sides of the split. Of the 2,187 people counted with this name, 444 were male (20.3%) and 1,743 were female (79.7%). 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 Ragan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ragan is White at 82.6%. The next largest groups are Black (8.4%) 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 Ragan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ragan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.6% (1,806 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 Ragan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ragan a female name?
Yes, 82.5% of people registered as Ragan in the SSA data are female. 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 Ragan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ragan 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 Ragan 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 Ragan as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Ragan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.