Keagan
Masculine · “son of the little fiery one”
Keagan is given to both — 8,784 boys and 1,757 girls since 1880. See Keagan as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Keagan respells Keegan, and the Irish behind it is Mac Aodhagáin — son of the little fiery one, from Aodh, the god of fire in pre-Christian Ireland.
How old is the name Keagan?
Keagan first appears in US birth records in 1977 — 48 years ago. The typical Keagan alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 8,700 people named Keagan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keagan most popular?
Keagan peaked in 2008, reaching #489 nationally. Today it ranks #1609, 1,120 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aodh to Keagan
The story of Keagan
Mac Aodhagáin was a Connacht family of hereditary lawyers — brehons — who kept and taught Irish law for centuries. The surname was anglicized as Keegan and Egan. It entered American given-name use in the twentieth century, and the Keagan respelling appears from the 1990s. It is in current use.
Meaning
son of the little fiery one
From the Irish Mac Aodhagáin, built on Aodh, 'fire' — a pre-Christian Irish deity name that became an ordinary given name, anglicized as Hugh. The diminutive -án and the patronymic Mac complete it. The elements are ordinary Irish and the reading is undisputed.
How the name formed
- Aodh
- Mac Aodhagáin
- Keegan
- Keagan
Related forms: Keegan · Mac Aodhagáin · Egan
Pronouncing Keagan
KEE-gun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Keagan and Keegan are said identically.
Nicknames for Keagan
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
- 1977
- Most boys named
- 2008564 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #489reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%105 in 2025, from 105
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.
Keagan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Keegan in English — spelling variant
- Mac Aodhagáin in Irish — related form
- Egan in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, North Carolina.
Keagans among us
people named Keagan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 16,267 born in 2025 was named Keagan
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 Dwain test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keagan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dwain climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dwain's path sketches the road Keagan is walking now.
Keagan 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 Keagan is headed
Keagan is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Keagan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keagan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The fire element is concrete and reaches back to pre-Christian Irish religion.
- A documented family of hereditary Irish lawyers carries the surname.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Keegan is the commoner spelling and will be assumed.
- It will be respelled by other people regularly.
- Reagan and Teagan are close enough in sound to cause confusion.
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What they receive
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Keagan
Masculine · #1609 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keagans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,700 people named Keagan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keagan in 2025?
- Keagan ranks #1609 among US boy names in 2025, with 105 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keagan?
- About 1 in every 16,267 US boys born in 2025 was named Keagan — 105 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keagan with classmates?
- Keagan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keagan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zade#1609 · Valen#1609 · Cristobal#1609 · Steve#1609 · Phineas#1609 · Cru#1609 · Karam#1609 · Destin#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keagan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keagan and another name?
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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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