Glennon
Masculine · “From the little glen”
Glennon looks like Glenn with an ending stuck on it, in the American manner, and it is nothing of the kind. It is an Irish surname in its own right, older than the fashion for building names that way, and the resemblance is a trap that catches almost everybody.
How old is the name Glennon?
Glennon first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Glennon alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 500 people named Glennon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Glennon most popular?
Glennon peaked in 1928, reaching #1272 nationally. See the whole 1928 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gleann to Glennon
The story of Glennon
One bearer had a career with a very short ending. John Glennon was archbishop of St Louis for nearly half a century, built the cathedral there, and was made a cardinal in his eighties after a long wait. He traveled to Rome to receive the red hat, took the ceremony, started for home, stopped in Ireland where he had been born, and died there a few days later without ever having appeared in his own diocese as a cardinal. He is buried in the cathedral he built. It is the sort of detail that fixes a name in a particular American Catholic memory, and it is why the surname turns up as a given name in Irish American families of the following generation.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the little glen
The Irish original is a surname built on the word for a valley with a diminutive ending, so it describes a family from a small glen rather than a person called Glenn. The identification is standard but not beyond argument, since several similar Irish surnames have been merged in anglicization. What is certain is that the name did not come from adding an ending to Glenn.
How the name formed
- gleann
- O Gleannain
- Glennon
Related forms: O Gleannain
Pronouncing Glennon
GLEN-un
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second syllable carries the colorless unstressed vowel, so Glennon, Glennan and Glennin would all be said identically.
Nicknames for Glennon
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 195733 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1272reached in 1928
- Change vs 1991
- 0.0%6 in 1995, 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.
Glennon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Gleannain in Irish — related form
Glennons among us
people named Glennon are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Glennon sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, firm and easy to spell once heard, with a genuine Irish history behind it.
- Glenn sits inside it as a plain one-syllable everyday name.
- It is uncommon without containing any unfamiliar sound.
- It will be assumed to be a modern build on Glenn, and correcting that takes a paragraph.
- It reads as a surname and will be entered in the wrong column on forms.
- Glennan and Glenon exist as variants, so spelling it out is likely.
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What they receive
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Glennon
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Glennons 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 Glennon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Glennon in 2025?
- Glennon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Glennon with classmates?
- Glennon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More G names
The most-given names starting with G, all years combined.
George#126 · Gary#1073 · Gregory#593 · Gerald#1204 · Gabriel#37 · Glenn#1443 · Gavin#303 · Gordon#1051
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Glennon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Glennon and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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