Glenn
Masculine · “a narrow valley”
Glenn is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 248,642 boys against 2,136 girls since 1880. See Glenn as a girl name
One n or two divides the word from the surname. Glen with a single n is the ordinary English noun for a narrow valley, borrowed from Gaelic. Glenn with two is the family name, and families spelled it that way long before anyone used either as a first name. The doubling is a claim about ancestry.
How old is the name Glenn?
Glenn was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Glenn alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 140,000 people named Glenn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Glenn most popular?
Glenn peaked in 1962, reaching #55 nationally. Today it ranks #1443, 1,388 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Where it comes from
From gleann to Glenn
The story of Glenn
The most famous bearer did something no astronaut had done and then did it again in a way nobody expected. He was the first American to go round the earth rather than merely up and down, in a capsule so cramped he could not fully straighten his arms, with a heat shield that ground control believed might have come loose. He then left the program, went into politics, served in the Senate for four terms, and at seventy-seven talked his way onto a shuttle flight as a research subject on the effects of spaceflight on the elderly. Thirty-six years separated the two flights, which remains the longest gap between any person's trips to orbit.
Meaning
a narrow valley
From the Gaelic word for a steep-sided valley, usually with water in it. English borrowed the noun and also borrowed the surname of families who lived in one, and the two arrived separately.
How the name formed
- gleann
- Glen
- Glenn
Pronouncing Glenn
GLEN
One syllable. The doubled n changes nothing audible; it is there to mark the name as a surname rather than the plain word.
Nicknames for Glenn
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
- 19576,267 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #55reached in 1962
- Change vs 2022
- −2.4%124 in 2025, from 127
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.
Glenn in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Glenns among us
people named Glenn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,775 born in 2025 was named Glenn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Glenn
- #1443
- Glenn on the 2025 chart
- #731
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Glenn went to 124 boys in 2025, but Glen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 198, which makes it the 731st most-given boys’ name of the year — 712 places above the chart.
- Glenn124
- Glen74
About 1 boy in 8,627 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,775 for Glenn 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 Ronnie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Glenn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ronnie climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ronnie's path sketches the road Glenn is walking now.
Glenn has held the top-100 across 6 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Glenn is headed
Glenn 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.
Glenn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Glenn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, entirely unambiguous, and never spelled out twice.
- The meaning is concrete and transparent to anyone.
- It has stayed in steady use for well over a century without a fashion behind it.
- Glen with one n is equally standard and the spelling gets queried.
- Its peak generation is now far enough back to date the name.
- The record holds girls as well, and the girl is much the smaller side.
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Glenn
Masculine · #1443 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Glenns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 140,000 people named Glenn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Glenn?
- Glenn is the most-used spelling in US records — 124 of the 198 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Glen.
- How popular is the name Glenn in 2025?
- Glenn ranks #1443 among US boy names in 2025, with 124 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Glenn?
- About 1 in every 13,775 US boys born in 2025 was named Glenn — 124 in all.
- Will my child share the name Glenn with classmates?
- Glenn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Glenn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reyansh#1443 · Hampton#1443 · Ilan#1443 · Khamari#1443 · Nick#1443 · Syair#1443 · Yair#1443 · Niam#1436
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Glenn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Glenn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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