Rhegan
A feminine Gaelic name meaning "little royal one" or "little mighty one".
Name Census estimates that about 276 living Americans carry the first name Rhegan. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rhegan today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rhegan births was 2004 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rhegan. 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 Rhegan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
276
~ 1 in 1,241,864 Americans
Peak year
2004
24 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#17,111
Tracked since 1994
Census
Rhegan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 282 people with the first name Rhegan, which placed it at #30,717 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
#30,717
National first-name rank
People counted
282
282 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rhegan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rhegan is White at 63.8%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 Rhegan 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 Rhegan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.8% · 180
- Black or African American23.8% · 67
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 17
- Two or more races5.7% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Popularity
Rhegan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rhegan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 133 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
Rhegan 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 Rhegan 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 Rhegan
The name Rhegan is believed to have its origins in the Welsh language, where it is a variant spelling of the name Rhiannon. This name can be traced back to the mythological figure of Rhiannon, a prominent character in the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales from the 12th and 13th centuries.
The name Rhiannon is derived from the Welsh words "rhien," meaning "great queen" or "divine queen," and "anon," meaning "fair" or "beautiful." This reflects the goddess-like status of Rhiannon in Welsh mythology, where she was revered as a powerful and benevolent figure associated with horses, fertility, and sovereignty.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rhiannon appears in the Welsh tale of "Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed," where she is portrayed as a beautiful and mystical figure who marries the prince. Her character is central to the story and is often interpreted as a representation of a pagan fertility goddess.
Throughout history, the name Rhegan or its variant spellings have been borne by several notable individuals. One example is Rhegan Courtney (born 1984), an Australian actress known for her roles in television shows like "Neighbours" and "The Code."
Another historical figure with this name is Rhegan Butler (1851-1931), an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee in the late 19th century.
In the realm of literature, Rhegan Webb is the name of a fictional character in the novel "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. This character is a member of the oppressive ruling class in the dystopian society depicted in the novel.
A notable historical figure bearing a similar name is Rheged, a semi-legendary king who ruled over a kingdom in what is now northern England and southern Scotland during the 6th century AD. While not an exact match, this name shares a common root with Rhegan and reflects the ancient Celtic heritage of the name.
Finally, Rhegan Davies (1938-2011) was a Welsh artist and educator who played a significant role in promoting and preserving Welsh culture and language through her work as a painter and as a teacher of Welsh language and literature.
These examples illustrate the rich history and diverse cultural connections associated with the name Rhegan, which has its roots in ancient Welsh mythology and has been carried by notable individuals across various fields throughout the centuries.
People
Rhegan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rhegan 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
Rhegan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rhegan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 276 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rhegan 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 1,241,864 US residents.
Is Rhegan a common name?
We classify Rhegan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 280 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rhegan most popular?
The single biggest year for Rhegan was 2004, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rhegan is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rhegan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 282 people with the name Rhegan, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,717 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 Rhegan 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 Rhegan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rhegan leans strongly female. 267 people counted with this name were female (92.7%), compared with 21 male bearers (7.3%). 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 Rhegan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rhegan is White at 63.8%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 Rhegan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rhegan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.8% (180 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 Rhegan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rhegan a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rhegan 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 Rhegan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rhegan 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 Rhegan 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 Rhegan?
You can see how many Americans are named Rhegan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.