Keegan
Masculine · “descendant of Aodhagán”
Keegan is given to both — 38,519 boys and 3,805 girls since 1880. See Keegan as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Keegan comes from one of the great Irish legal families — the Mac Aodhagáin, hereditary brehon lawyers who ran law schools in medieval Connacht and Ormond. Anglicized into Keegan, it crossed the Atlantic as a surname and only much later stepped forward as a first name. Two clean syllables, spelled the way it sounds.
How old is the name Keegan?
Keegan first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Keegan alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 38,000 people named Keegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keegan most popular?
Keegan peaked in 2007, reaching #222 nationally. Today it ranks #621, 399 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Keegan appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Aodh to Keegan
The story of Keegan
The Mac Aodhagáin were among Ireland's hereditary brehon families, legal scholars who kept and taught native Irish law under the Gaelic lordships, particularly in Connacht and in Ormond in the south. Their name was built from Aodhagán, a diminutive of the old personal name Aodh, meaning fire. When Irish names were pushed into English spelling, Mac Aodhagáin came out variously as MacEgan, Egan and Keegan. It traveled to America as a family name through Irish emigration, and — like Ryan, Casey and Brennan before it — was later lifted out of the surname column and given to babies, which is where American records first pick it up.
Meaning
descendant of Aodhagán — 'little Aodh', from Aodh, 'fire'
The chain is well documented: the Irish personal name Aodh ('fire') gave the diminutive Aodhagán, which gave the surname Mac Aodhagáin or Ó Aodhagáin, anglicized as Keegan and Egan.
How the name formed
- Aodh
- Aodhagán
- Mac Aodhagáin
- MacEgan / Keegan
- Keegan
Related forms: Aodhagán · Mac Aodhagáin · Egan · Keagan · Kegan · Aodh
Pronouncing Keegan
KEE-gən
Stress on the first syllable. The spelling gives the sound away, so it rarely needs repeating.
Nicknames for Keegan
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
- 1965
- Most boys named
- 20081,683 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #222reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- −7.2%449 in 2025, from 484
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.
Keegan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aodhagán in Irish — related form
- Mac Aodhagáin in Irish — related form
- Egan in English — related form
- Keagan in English — spelling variant
- Kegan in English — spelling variant
- Aodh in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas.
Keegans among us
people named Keegan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,804 born in 2025 was named Keegan
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 Burton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keegan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Burton climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Burton's path sketches the road Keegan is walking now.
Keegan 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 Keegan is headed
Keegan is easing off slowly — about 16% 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.
Keegan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keegan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English — two syllables, no silent letters, no competing pronunciations.
- Genuine Irish ancestry with a traceable line from Aodh through Aodhagán to the Mac Aodhagáin brehon families.
- Widely recognized as a surname across the English-speaking world, so it is familiar before it is explained.
- Works alongside the whole family of Irish surname-names without duplicating any of them.
- Rare enough in classrooms that it usually stands alone, while still being a name people have heard.
- Keagan, Kegan and Keeghan all exist, so the spelling will occasionally be queried even though this one is the most common. A short confirmation, not a lifelong battle.
- It sits in a crowded corner of similar sounds — Keaton, Kian, Kellan, Teagan — and can be misheard among them in a noisy room.
- Its strongest years are recent enough that most people carrying it are teenagers and young adults, so it currently reads as a name of that generation rather than an old family one.
- Short forms are limited: Keeg and Keegs are real but informal, so the full name will do most of the work.
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What they receive
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Keegan
Masculine · #621 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keegans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 38,000 people named Keegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keegan in 2025?
- Keegan ranks #621 among US boy names in 2025, with 449 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keegan?
- About 1 in every 3,804 US boys born in 2025 was named Keegan — 449 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keegan with classmates?
- Keegan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keegan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Koen#622 · Kylian#622 · Dominick#622 · Boston#620 · Westley#619 · Harlan#617 · Jaiden#617 · Hassan#625
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keegan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keegan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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