Dillion
Masculine · “Sea”
Dillion is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,655 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Dillion sits between two names that sound almost identical and have nothing to do with each other: Dylan, the Welsh sea name, and Dillon, an Irish surname. The -ion spelling belongs to neither and appears in the American records only in the 1990s.
How old is the name Dillion?
Dillion first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Dillion alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 3,600 people named Dillion are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dillion most popular?
Dillion peaked in 1992, reaching #539 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 4,860 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Dylan to Dillion
The story of Dillion
Dylan ail Don is a figure of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi who takes to the sea as soon as he is born; the name was revived in Wales in the twentieth century and made international by Dylan Thomas, and then by Bob Dylan, who took his stage name from the poet. Separately, the Dillons were a Norman family who went to Ireland in the twelfth century and became an established Irish surname. American use of both climbed steeply through the 1980s and 1990s, and Dillion, Dillan and Dillen appear as respellings behind them, with Dillion peaking in 1992.
Meaningscholars disagree
Sea, if from Dylan; loyal, if from Dillon
Welsh Dylan is a name from the Mabinogi, generally read as sea or great tide, and that reading is settled for Dylan. The Irish surname Dillon comes from a Norman family name of uncertain origin, sometimes connected to a Germanic element meaning destroyer and sometimes to Old French. Dillion matches the sound of both and the spelling of neither, and the record does not distinguish.
How the name formed
- Dylan
- Dillon
- Dillion
Related forms: Dylan · Diolún · Dillon
Pronouncing Dillion
DIL-un
Two syllables, stress on the first. The -ion spelling adds no sound to -on. Welsh Dylan is properly DUL-an with a short u, which almost no English speaker uses.
Nicknames for Dillion
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
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 1992354 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #539reached in 1992
- Change vs 2024
- −5.6%17 in 2025, from 18
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.
Dillion in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dylan in Welsh — related form
- Diolún in Irish — related form
- Dillon in English — spelling variant
Dillions among us
people named Dillion are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Dillion
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 Edison test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Dillion's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Edison climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Edison's path sketches the road Dillion is walking now.
Dillion 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
Dillion beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dillion in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It sounds like two very familiar names at once.
- Dill and Dilly both work as short forms.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Dylan and Dillon are both far commoner and will be written for it.
- The -ion ending invites the misreading DIL-ee-on.
- The two possible sources have entirely different meanings.
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What they receive
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Dillion
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dillions are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,600 people named Dillion are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dillion in 2025?
- Dillion ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dillion?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Dillion — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dillion with classmates?
- Dillion will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dillion
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dillion? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dillion and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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