Ciaran
Masculine · “little dark one”
Ciaran is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,198 boys against 35 girls since 1880.
Ciarán is the little dark one, and it belongs to two of Ireland's twelve apostles — including the founder of Clonmacnoise, who died at thirty-three.
How old is the name Ciaran?
Ciaran first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Ciaran alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 2,200 people named Ciaran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ciaran most popular?
Ciaran peaked in 2025, reaching #1609 nationally. Today it ranks #1609, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ciar to Ciaran
The story of Ciaran
Ciarán of Clonmacnoise founded one of the greatest monasteries in Ireland in 544 and died of plague within a year of doing so, aged about thirty-three; Ciarán of Saigir is the other. The name is among the most-used in Ireland. Irish emigration brought it to America, where the Ciaran spelling appears and is in current use.
Meaning
little dark one
From the Irish ciar, 'dark' or 'black', with the diminutive -án — so 'little dark one', a descriptive name for hair or coloring. The same ciar gives Kerry, Ciara and Kieran. The Irish is ordinary and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- ciar
- Ciarán
- Ciaran
Related forms: Ciarán · Kieran · Ciaran
Pronouncing Ciaran
KEER-awn
Two syllables, stress on the first in Irish. Many English speakers say kee-RAN with the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Ciaran
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 2025105 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1609reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +12.9%105 in 2025, from 93
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.
Ciaran in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ciarán in Irish — same name
- Kieran in English — spelling variant
- Ciaran in Scottish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Pennsylvania.
Ciarans among us
people named Ciaran are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,267 born in 2025 was named Ciaran
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 Breckin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ciaran's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Breckin climbed just as high around 2002, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Breckin's path sketches the road Ciaran is walking now.
Ciaran is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ciaran is headed
Ciaran looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Ciaran beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ciaran in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The little-dark-one meaning is concrete and belongs to a large coherent Irish family.
- Two of Ireland's twelve apostles carry the name.
- It is authentically Irish rather than an anglicization.
- The C spelling will be read as a soft s by many English speakers.
- Kieran is far commoner in America and will be substituted.
- The stress placement splits between Irish and English readings.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Ciaran
Masculine · #1609 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ciarans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Ciaran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ciaran in 2025?
- Ciaran ranks #1609 among US boy names in 2025, with 105 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ciaran?
- About 1 in every 16,267 US boys born in 2025 was named Ciaran — 105 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ciaran with classmates?
- Ciaran will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ciaran
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Keagan#1609 · Cru#1609 · Cristobal#1609 · Steve#1609 · Phineas#1609 · Zade#1609 · Karam#1609 · Valen#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ciaran? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ciaran and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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