Dilan
Masculine
Dilan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 6,034 boys against 104 girls since 1880.
Dilan sits one letter away from a name the whole English-speaking world already knows, and that single letter is doing real work: it is the spelling that lets the name be read the same way in Spanish as in English. Behind it stands Dylan, the sea-figure of the medieval Welsh Mabinogi, and beside it stands a separate Dilan long used in Turkish and Kurdish. Two letters, two roads, one short and easily said name.
How old is the name Dilan?
Dilan first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Dilan is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,000 people named Dilan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dilan most popular?
Dilan peaked in 2024, reaching #662 nationally. Today it ranks #805, 143 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Dilan appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Dylan ail Don (Mabinogi) to Dilan
The story of Dilan
The Welsh line is the older one: Dylan ail Don appears in the medieval Welsh prose tales collected as the Mabinogi, a child associated with the sea, and the name was revived as a given name in Wales in the twentieth century before spreading through the English-speaking world. Dilan is the spelling that carries it into Spanish, where a y in that position would not give the intended vowel — which is why the name has taken hold across Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking United States. The Kurdish and Turkish Dilan grew up quite independently, with no connection to Wales at all, and reached the US with its own families. The two histories have simply met at the same five letters.
Meaningscholars disagree
"great tide" or "sea" by way of Welsh Dylan; "dance, celebration" in the Kurdish name
Most US bearers arrive through Dylan, the name of Dylan ail Don in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, generally read as containing Welsh elements for sea or tide. Separately, Dilan exists in Kurdish and Turkish, connected to dilan, a circle dance or festivity, and to dil, heart. Both readings are genuine; which one applies depends on the family, not on the spelling.
How the name formed
- Dylan ail DonMabinogi
- Dylan
- Dilan
Related forms: Dylan · Dylan · Dylan · Dilan · Dilan · Dylan
Pronouncing Dilan
DIL-un
English speakers say it exactly like Dylan: DIL-un. In Spanish it is closer to DEE-lahn, and in Turkish and Kurdish dee-LAHN with the stress at the end. All three are correct for their own setting, so expect to state your preference.
Nicknames for Dilan
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
- 1980
- Most boys named
- 2024414 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #662reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −25.4%309 in 2025, from 414
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.
Dilan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dylan in Welsh — same name
- Dylan in English — spelling variant
- Dylan in Spanish — spelling variant
- Dilan in Turkish — related form
- Dilan in Kurdish — related form
- Dylan in Portuguese — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Dilans among us
people named Dilan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,528 born in 2025 was named Dilan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Dilan
- #805
- Dilan on the 2025 chart
- #40
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Dilan went to 309 boys in 2025, but Dylan is the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 6,562, which makes it the 40th most-given boys’ name of the year — 765 places above the chart.
- Dylan6,208
- Dilan309
and 3 rarer spellings.
About 1 boy in 260 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,528 for Dilan itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kenyon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dilan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenyon climbed just as high around 2005, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenyon's path sketches the road Dilan is walking now.
Dilan 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 Dilan is headed
Dilan looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 30% 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.
Dilan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dilan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters, two syllables, and no silent letters — easy for a child to write early and for anyone to say on first sight.
- Works in both English and Spanish without changing the spelling, which is part of why it is strongest in Texas, California and Florida.
- Sits inside a name almost everyone already recognizes, so it is rare without ever sounding unfamiliar.
- Traces back to a figure named in medieval Welsh prose, a documented line rather than a recent coinage.
- One clear short form, Dil, already established through Dylan.
- Dylan is far more widely written, so this spelling will need correcting fairly often — on forms, in class lists, in email. It is a one-letter fix, but a lifelong one.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits: DIL-un in English, DEE-lahn in Spanish, dee-LAHN in Turkish and Kurdish. Worth deciding what you will say at introductions.
- In Turkey, Dilan is used mainly for girls. That rarely comes up in the US, where the record is male, but it can surprise Turkish-speaking relatives or friends.
- This wave is young enough that most bearers are still children, so a Dilan is unlikely to meet an older namesake — and equally unlikely to share the name with a classmate.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Dilan to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Dilan? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Dilan
Masculine · #805 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dilans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,000 people named Dilan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Dilan?
- Dilan is one of 2 recorded spellings. Dylan is the more common one — 6,208 births in 2025 against 309 for Dilan.
- How popular is the name Dilan in 2025?
- Dilan ranks #805 among US boy names in 2025, with 309 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dilan?
- About 1 in every 5,528 US boys born in 2025 was named Dilan — 309 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dilan with classmates?
- Dilan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dilan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mccoy#805 · Brewer#804 · Douglas#807 · Lennon#807 · Azai#809 · Brock#810 · Kaisen#800 · Rohan#810
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dilan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dilan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle