Conlan
Masculine · “Irish Conallan”
Irish names are full of hounds. Conall, Conan, Conor, Cuchulainn and Conlan all contain cu, the word for a hound or wolf, and in early Irish society calling a warrior a hound was the highest compliment available. The dog was the fighting animal, loyal and dangerous, and a man who fought like one had nothing to be ashamed of.
How old is the name Conlan?
Conlan first appears in US birth records in 1987 — 38 years ago. The typical Conlan alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 900 people named Conlan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Conlan most popular?
Conlan peaked in 2005, reaching #2325 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 5,918 places below that high. See the whole 2005 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Conall to Conlan
The story of Conlan
The hound metaphor runs through early Irish literature. Cuchulainn, the central hero of the Ulster Cycle, is named for a specific incident: as a boy he kills the smith Culann's guard dog and offers to serve as the hound of Culann until a replacement is reared, which is what the name says. Conall Cernach, another Ulster hero, carries the same element. Beyond Ireland the pattern is Indo-European: warriors compared to dogs and wolves appear in Germanic, Greek and Indo-Iranian material, and Germanic names in wulf are the same idea in another language. What is specific to Irish is the diminutive machinery. The suffix -an makes a smaller or more affectionate version of any name, and a very large share of Irish surnames are built on a diminutive rather than on the plain name, which is why so many of them have an extra syllable in the middle. Conlan peaks in 2005.
Meaningscholars disagree
Irish Conallan, from cu, hound
Conlan is an anglicization of the Irish surname O Conallain, descendant of Conallan, which is a diminutive of Conall. Conall is usually read as containing cu, genitive con, a hound or wolf, with a second element variously explained as strong or valiant. The second half is not securely established. The -an ending is the Irish diminutive, so Conallan is little Conall, and the surname is built on that.
How the name formed
- Conall
- Conallan
- Conlan
Related forms: O Conallain · Conlon · Conlin
Pronouncing Conlan
CON-lun
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second syllable is fully reduced, so Conlan, Conlon and Conlin are homophones and only the spelling separates them.
Nicknames for Conlan
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
- 1987
- Most boys named
- 200550 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2325reached in 2005
- Change vs 2024
- −10.0%9 in 2025, from 10
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.
Conlan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Conallain in Irish — related form
- Conlon in English — spelling variant
- Conlin in English — spelling variant
Conlans among us
people named Conlan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Conlan
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 Simone test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Conlan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Simone climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Simone's path sketches the road Conlan is walking now.
Conlan 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
Conlan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Conlan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The hound element is genuine and well documented in Irish naming.
- It fits the current preference for Irish surnames as boys' names.
- Con is a short and usable form.
- Conlon and Conlin are equally valid spellings.
- Con is also an English word about deception.
- The second element of the underlying name is not securely explained.
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Conlan
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Conlans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Conlan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Conlan in 2025?
- Conlan ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Conlan?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Conlan — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Conlan with classmates?
- Conlan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Conlan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Conlan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Conlan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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