Flannery
Feminine
Flannery is a red name. The Irish flann means blood-red or ruddy, and the surname joins it to a word for valor — so the family name means something like red courage, which sounds invented and is not. As an American first name it belongs almost entirely to one writer, whose short stories are among the strangest and best the country has produced.
How old is the name Flannery?
Flannery first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Flannery alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 600 people named Flannery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Flannery most popular?
Flannery peaked in 1988, reaching #4308 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 8,900 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From flann to Flannery
The story of Flannery
The surname belongs to Connacht and reached America with Irish emigration like a thousand others. What lifted it to the front of the name is specific: Flannery O'Connor published two novels and two collections of stories before dying at thirty-nine, and her work — violent, funny, and unmistakable — became a fixture of American reading. The name appears in birth records from around 1980, which is when her readership was at its widest, and it is given almost entirely to daughters, following her rather than the surname's own history.
Meaning
descendant of the red-haired brave one
From the Irish Ó Flannghaile, built on flann, meaning blood-red or ruddy — used of hair and complexion — and gal, valor or bravery. The compound is one of the more vivid in Irish surname stock, and both elements are securely attested.
How the name formed
- flann
- Ó Flannghaile
- Flannery
Related forms: Ó Flannghaile
Pronouncing Flannery
FLAN-uh-ree
Three syllables, stress on the first. Nothing about the spelling causes an English reader any difficulty, which is unusual for an Irish surname of this length.
Nicknames for Flannery
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 girls named
- 200623 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4308reached in 1988
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%6 in 2025, from 6
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.
Flannery in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Flannghaile in Irish — same name
Flannerys among us
people named Flannery are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Flannery
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 Marcos test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Flannery's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcos climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcos's path sketches the road Flannery is walking now.
Flannery 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
Flannery beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Flannery in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine Irish surname with a documented and vivid meaning.
- It is entirely readable on sight, which many Irish names are not.
- It has a distinguished American writer standing behind it, which gives a child something real to find.
- Three syllables with soft consonants that sit well after most surnames.
- It reads as a surname first, and as one particular writer's name to anyone who reads fiction.
- Flan, the obvious short form, is also a dessert.
- It is unusual enough that a child will spell it out often, though never explain how to say it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Flannery
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Flannerys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Flannery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Flannery in 2025?
- Flannery ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Flannery?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Flannery — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Flannery with classmates?
- Flannery will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Flannery
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Flannery? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Flannery and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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