Carrigan
Feminine · “Descendant of the little spear”
Carrigan is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,236 girls against 10 boys since 1880.
Carrigan is an Irish surname built on a rock: carraig is the Irish word, and Ó Corragáin gives the family name. It became an American girls' name in the 1990s, when Irish surnames were being handed to daughters in numbers.
How old is the name Carrigan?
Carrigan first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Carrigan alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,200 people named Carrigan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carrigan most popular?
Carrigan peaked in 1996, reaching #1806 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 3,748 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ó Corragáin to Carrigan
The story of Carrigan
The Ó Corragáin were a Fermanagh family and the surname spread through Ulster and beyond, anglicized as Corrigan, Carrigan and Corregan. Emigration carried it to America, Britain and Australia. Its use as a girls' given name is recent and belongs to a specific movement: in the 1990s American families began giving daughters Irish surnames — Reagan, Kennedy, Sullivan, Carrigan, Delaney — in preference to Irish first names, which had a different and older register. Carrigan's peak in 1996 sits at the front of that movement.
Meaningscholars disagree
Descendant of the little spear, or of the rock
The surname Corrigan comes from Irish Ó Corragáin, and two derivations compete: a diminutive of corrach, a spear, and a diminutive of carraig, a rock. The rock reading is the commoner gloss and the spear reading is the one most Irish surname scholars prefer. Neither is settled. Carrigan is a spelling variant of Corrigan influenced by carraig.
How the name formed
- Ó Corragáin
- Corrigan
- Carrigan
Related forms: Ó Corragáin · Corrigan
Pronouncing Carrigan
KAIR-i-gun
Three syllables, stress on the first. The Irish Ó Corragáin is closer to oh-CORE-a-gawn, which is a different name to the ear.
Nicknames for Carrigan
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 199681 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1806reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +22.2%22 in 2025, from 18
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.
Carrigan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Corragáin in Irish — related form
- Corrigan in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia.
Carrigans among us
people named Carrigan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Carrigan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Carlos test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carrigan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carlos climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carlos's path sketches the road Carrigan is walking now.
Carrigan 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
Carrigan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carrigan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Carrie is a warm, established short form.
- It has a genuine Irish family history behind it.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Corrigan is the standard surname spelling and will be written for it.
- The meaning is contested between two quite different readings.
- It reads as a surname and as unisex.
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What they receive
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Carrigan
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carrigans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Carrigan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carrigan in 2025?
- Carrigan ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carrigan?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Carrigan — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carrigan with classmates?
- Carrigan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carrigan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carrigan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carrigan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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