Dallan
Masculine · “little blind one”
The oldest datable poem in Irish is an elegy for Saint Columba, written around 597 by a poet called Dallan Forgaill. It is nearly incomprehensible even to scholars of Old Irish — deliberately difficult, packed with compressed praise — and it is older than almost anything in any European language except Latin and Greek.
How old is the name Dallan?
Dallan first appears in US birth records in 1938 — 87 years ago. The typical Dallan alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 700 people named Dallan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dallan most popular?
Dallan peaked in 1998, reaching #2599 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 9,409 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dall to Dallan
The story of Dallan
The Amra Coluim Chille was composed within a year or two of Columba's death and it survives with a commentary attached, because medieval Irish readers already needed one. Its difficulty was the point: a chief poet demonstrated skill by compressing meaning to the edge of intelligibility, and the profession was trained, ranked and legally protected. Dallan held the highest grade. Irish tradition also says he was killed by pirates, and that his head was reunited with his body afterwards, which is the sort of detail that attaches to poets. The name is plain: little blind one, from the ordinary word for blind, given as a diminutive.
Meaning
little blind one
Irish Dallan, a diminutive of dall, blind. The poet is said to have lost his sight from excessive study, which may be an explanation invented to fit the name. The word dall is ordinary Irish and the diminutive ending is the same one in Aodhan and Ciaran.
How the name formed
- dall
- Dallan
Related forms: Dallan
Pronouncing Dallan
DAL-un
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Irish is closer to DAL-awn, with a fuller second vowel. Dallan and Dalan are said identically in American mouths.
Nicknames for Dallan
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
- 1938
- Most boys named
- 200834 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2599reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −68.8%5 in 2025, from 16
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.
Dallan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dallan in Irish — same name
Dallans among us
people named Dallan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Dallan
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 Anthonio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dallan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Anthonio climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Anthonio's path sketches the road Dallan is walking now.
Dallan 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
Dallan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dallan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented sixth-century bearer whose work survives and can be read in translation.
- A settled Irish meaning built on an ordinary word.
- Two syllables that everyone reads correctly on sight.
- The meaning is little blind one, which is either a good story or an uncomfortable one.
- Dallon, Dalan and Dylan are all close and will be substituted.
- It belongs to a small revival of Irish names and is rare enough to need repeating.
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What they receive
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Dallan
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dallans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Dallan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dallan in 2025?
- Dallan ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dallan?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Dallan — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dallan with classmates?
- Dallan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dallan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dallan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dallan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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