Duncan
Masculine · “warrior of battle”
Duncan is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 21,219 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Duncan comes out of Gaelic Scotland, where it belonged to kings before it belonged to anyone else — Duncan I held the Scottish throne in the eleventh century, and Shakespeare put him on stage six hundred years later. In English it has kept the same two beats and the same spelling for centuries, saying itself the moment it is read. It has a long unbroken record in the United States without ever crowding a classroom.
How old is the name Duncan?
Duncan was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Duncan alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 17,500 people named Duncan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Duncan most popular?
Duncan peaked in 1997, reaching #378 nationally. Today it ranks #1123, 745 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dúnchad to Duncan
The story of Duncan
Duncan is the English form of the Gaelic name Donnchadh, borne in medieval Ireland and Scotland long before it settled into its modern spelling. Two kings of Scots carried it in the eleventh century, the first of them the Duncan whom Shakespeare made a murdered king in Macbeth around 1606 — which is how the name reached readers far outside the Gaelic world. It also became a clan surname, and traveled with Scottish and Irish emigration into North America, Australia and New Zealand, where it has stayed in quiet, continuous use. In Ireland the same root took a different English dress, appearing as Donough and Donagh, so the Gaelic original still has cousins that look nothing alike.
Meaningscholars disagree
warrior of battle; the first part read as either 'brown' or 'chief'
The name goes back to Gaelic Donnchadh. The second element, cath, means 'battle' and is not in dispute. The first, donn, is read two ways: as the ordinary word for 'brown' or 'brown-haired', giving 'brown warrior', and as the older sense 'chief, noble', giving 'chief warrior'. Both readings are held by serious scholarship, and neither has won.
How the name formed
- Dúnchad
- Donnchadh
- Duncan
Related forms: Donnchadh · Donnchadh · Donncha · Donough · Donagh
Pronouncing Duncan
DUN-kən
Stress on the first syllable, which rhymes with 'done'. The spelling gives the sound with no ambiguity in English, and it survives most other languages intact.
Nicknames for Duncan
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1999576 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #378reached in 1997
- Change vs 2022
- −24.9%190 in 2025, from 253
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.
Duncan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Donnchadh in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Donnchadh in Irish — same name
- Donncha in Irish (short form) — related form
- Donough in Irish, anglicized — related form
- Donagh in Irish, anglicized — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Duncans among us
people named Duncan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 8,990 born in 2025 was named Duncan
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 Donny test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Duncan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Donny climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Donny's path sketches the road Duncan is walking now.
Duncan 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 Duncan is headed
Duncan 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.
Duncan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Duncan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds, and already familiar to English speakers, so it seldom needs repeating or correcting.
- A documented record stretching from medieval Gaelic Scotland to the present — no gaps, no reinvention.
- Recognized across the English-speaking world, including Scotland, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the US.
- One established short form, Dunc, plus the family-only Dunky — enough options without a crowd of them.
- Long present in US records at a modest level, so it reads as known rather than either novel or overused.
- Shakespeare's King Duncan is killed in his sleep in the first act of Macbeth. It is a dignified role, but anyone who studied the play will think of it, and some will mention it.
- 'Dunkin'' and 'dunce' are the two rhyming pulls a schoolyard finds fastest. Neither is cruel, and both usually pass.
- The name carries an unmistakably Scottish flavor, which some families want and others may find sits oddly with their surname.
- A Duncan will most likely be the only one wherever he goes — a pleasure for him, and it means no ready-made cohort of others sharing the name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Duncan to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Duncan
Masculine · #1123 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Duncans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,500 people named Duncan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Duncan in 2025?
- Duncan ranks #1123 among US boy names in 2025, with 190 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Duncan?
- About 1 in every 8,990 US boys born in 2025 was named Duncan — 190 in all.
- Will my child share the name Duncan with classmates?
- Duncan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Duncan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Landyn#1123 · Axl#1123 · Kartier#1123 · Yazan#1123 · Makoa#1118 · Rylo#1118 · Santi#1118 · Jovanni#1118
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Duncan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Duncan and another name?
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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
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