Eoghan
Masculine · “born of the yew”
Eoghan is an old Irish name with two possible histories that Irish scholarship has never separated cleanly. It may be a native compound about the yew tree, which was sacred in early Ireland, or it may be the Latin Eugenius, well-born, taken in during the Christian centuries. Both readings have serious support.
How old is the name Eoghan?
Eoghan first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Eoghan is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Eoghan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Eoghan most popular?
Eoghan peaked in 2015, reaching #3684 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 1,361 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Eoghan to Eoghan
The story of Eoghan
Eoghan is one of the great dynastic names of early Ireland: the Eoganachta ruled Munster for centuries and traced themselves to a man of the name, and Tir Eoghain, the land of Eoghan, is the county now called Tyrone. The name has been in continuous use since. English produced Owen and Eugene from it and its Latin twin, and Irish kept Eoghan, which is now standard again in Ireland. American records carry all three.
Meaningscholars disagree
born of the yew, or well-born
The native reading takes eo, a yew, joined to a word for born or conceived. The other treats the name as a borrowing of Latin Eugenius, from Greek eugenes, well-born. Early Irish sources use Eoghan and Eugenius interchangeably, which is exactly why the question cannot be settled.
How the name formed
- Eoghan
- Owen
Related forms: Owain · Owen · Eòghann · Eugenius
Pronouncing Eoghan
OH-un
Two syllables, stress in front, the gh silent. Ulster Irish says it closer to OH-en and Munster closer to OH-in; English readers reach for ee-OH-gan, which is nobody's pronunciation.
Nicknames for Eoghan
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
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 201529 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3684reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%19 in 2025, from 19
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.
Eoghan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Owain in Welsh — related form
- Owen in English — related form
- Eòghann in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Eugenius in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Massachusetts.
Eoghans among us
people named Eoghan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Eoghan
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 Stark test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Eoghan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Stark climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Stark's path sketches the road Eoghan is walking now.
Eoghan 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
Eoghan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Eoghan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is one of the oldest continuously used Irish names, with a county named after a bearer.
- Owen is available as an everyday English equivalent for settings where the spelling is hard.
- The Irish spelling keeps a family line visible on a document.
- The gh is silent and almost no English reader guesses that, so the name is mispronounced constantly.
- Eoghan, Eoin and Owen are all in use and are different names with tangled histories.
- Its meaning is genuinely unresolved, so answers found online will disagree.
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What they receive
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Eoghan
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Eoghans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Eoghan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Eoghan in 2025?
- Eoghan ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Eoghan?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Eoghan — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Eoghan with classmates?
- Eoghan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Eoghan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Eoghan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Eoghan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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