Calan
Masculine · “the first day of the month”
Calan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 974 boys against 20 girls since 1880.
Calan is a Welsh word for the first day of a month — Calan Mai is May Day and Calan Gaeaf is the start of winter. It is also, separately, a spelling of the Gaelic Cailean.
How old is the name Calan?
Calan first appears in US birth records in 1984 — 41 years ago. The typical Calan alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,000 people named Calan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Calan most popular?
Calan peaked in 2018, reaching #2507 nationally. Today it ranks #3379, 872 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Where it comes from
From kalendae to Calan
The story of Calan
Latin kalendae named the day the new month was called out, and Welsh took the word for the same purpose — Calan Gaeaf, the first of winter, is the Welsh night that English calls Halloween. Its use as a personal name is modern and Welsh. Quite separately, American families use Calan as a spelling of Callan and Cailean, so the same five letters carry a Welsh calendar word and a Gaelic name at once.
Meaningscholars disagree
the first day of the month
Welsh calan comes from Latin kalendae, the first day of the Roman month, which also gives English calendar; the Welsh festival days keep the word. Separately, Calan is used as a spelling of Cailean or Callan, which have their own quite different origins.
How the name formed
- kalendae
- calan
Related forms: Calan · Callan · Cailean
Pronouncing Calan
KAL-an
Two syllables, first stressed. Some American families say KAY-lan, following Calen.
Nicknames for Calan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1984
- Most boys named
- 201851 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2507reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- +17.2%34 in 2025, from 29
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Calan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Calan in Welsh — same name
- Callan in English — related form
- Cailean in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Indiana, Kansas.
Calans among us
people named Calan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 50,238 born in 2025 was named Calan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Calan
- #3379
- Calan on the 2025 chart
- #181
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Calan went to 34 boys in 2025, but Callan, Kallan and Khalan and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 2,087, which makes it the 181st most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,198 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 818 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 50,238 for Calan itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Aaren test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Calan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aaren climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aaren's path sketches the road Calan is walking now.
Calan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Calan is headed
Calan is easing off slowly — about 15% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Calan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Calan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cal is a plain, permanent short form.
- Five letters and two syllables, easy to write early.
- A documented Welsh word with a real festival history behind it.
- The first vowel is unsettled between KAL and KAY in American use.
- Callan, Calan and Calen are all in use and none is dominant.
- The Welsh sense is invisible to almost everyone outside Wales.
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What they receive
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Calan
Masculine · #3379 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Calans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Calan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Calan?
- Calan is one of 5 recorded spellings. Callan is the more common one — 1,917 births in 2025 against 34 for Calan.
- How popular is the name Calan in 2025?
- Calan ranks #3379 among US boy names in 2025, with 34 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Calan?
- About 1 in every 50,238 US boys born in 2025 was named Calan — 34 in all.
- Will my child share the name Calan with classmates?
- Calan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Calan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Art#3379 · Sampson#3379 · Kiernan#3379 · Benyamin#3379 · Quamir#3379 · Madhav#3379 · Tuff#3379 · Hubert#3379
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Calan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Calan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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