Deegan
Masculine · “descendant of the black-haired one”
Deegan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,453 boys against 12 girls since 1880.
Deegan is the Irish Ó Duibhginn — the son of the black-headed one — from dubh, black, the commonest color word in Irish naming.
How old is the name Deegan?
Deegan first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Deegan alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 3,400 people named Deegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Deegan most popular?
Deegan peaked in 2011, reaching #833 nationally. Today it ranks #2020, 1,187 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From dubh cenn to Deegan
The story of Deegan
Dubh runs through Irish naming — Duff, Dougal, Dolan, Devlin, Deegan — because dark hair was the ordinary state and specific enough combinations were not. The Ó Duibhginn were of Leinster. Deegan crossed to America as a surname and entered given-name use recently, appearing in the registers in current use.
Meaning
descendant of the black-haired one
From the Irish Ó Duibhginn — dubh, 'black' or 'dark', and cenn, 'head'. English record-keeping produced Deegan, Dugan and Deighan from the same source. The elements are ordinary Irish and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- dubh cenn
- Ó Duibhginn
- Deegan
Related forms: Ó Duibhginn · Deagan · Dugan
Pronouncing Deegan
DEE-gun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Irish Ó Duibhginn is oh-DIV-gin.
Nicknames for Deegan
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
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 2011259 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #833reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −26.0%74 in 2025, from 100
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.
Deegan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Duibhginn in Irish — related form
- Deagan in English — spelling variant
- Dugan in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Ohio, Michigan.
Deegans among us
people named Deegan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 23,082 born in 2025 was named Deegan
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 Shay test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Deegan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shay climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shay's path sketches the road Deegan is walking now.
Deegan 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 Deegan is headed
Deegan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Deegan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Deegan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The dark-headed meaning is concrete and belongs to a large Irish family of names.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It has a documented Leinster sept behind it.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- Deegan, Deagan and Keegan are all close enough to confuse.
- It is very new as a given name.
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What they receive
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Deegan
Masculine · #2020 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Deegans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Deegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Deegan in 2025?
- Deegan ranks #2020 among US boy names in 2025, with 74 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Deegan?
- About 1 in every 23,082 US boys born in 2025 was named Deegan — 74 in all.
- Will my child share the name Deegan with classmates?
- Deegan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Deegan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lemuel#2020 · Kyan#2020 · Joah#2020 · Leviticus#2020 · Basil#2020 · Rigoberto#2020 · Domingo#2020 · Aaryan#2020
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Deegan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Deegan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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