Keenan
Feminine · “little ancient one”
Keenan is given to boys far more often — 18,176 boys against 339 girls since 1880. See Keenan as a boy name
Keenan entered the US charts in 1964, peaked at #5092 in 1979, is rarely given in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Keenan?
Keenan first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Keenan alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 300 people named Keenan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keenan most popular?
Keenan peaked in 1979, reaching #5092 nationally. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cian to Keenan
The story of Keenan
The root is the Irish word cian, 'long, distant, enduring', which gave the early given name Cian and then its diminutive Cianán. From Cianán came the surname Ó Cianáin, borne in Fermanagh by a learned family who served as chroniclers and scribes to the Maguires in the later Middle Ages. Anglicized as Keenan, the surname traveled with Irish emigration to Britain, Australia and North America, and — like Kelly, Ryan and Casey before it — was picked up in the United States as a first name in its own right. Its American history as a given name is a twentieth-century one, rising steadily through the second half of the century before easing back.
Meaning
little ancient one — from Irish cian, 'ancient, enduring, far-off'
Cianán is a diminutive of Cian, so the sense is roughly 'young descendant of the ancient one'. The surname Ó Cianáin means 'descendant of Cianán'.
How the name formed
- Cian
- Cianán
- Ó Cianáin
- Keenan
Related forms: Cianán · Ó Cianáin · Cian · Keenen · Keanan · Kienan
Pronouncing Keenan
KEE-nan
Stress on the first syllable, and the spelling gives it away on sight. The Irish ancestor Cianán is closer to KEE-uh-nawn, but the anglicized form is settled and unambiguous in English.
Nicknames for Keenan
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
- 1964
- Most girls named
- 199118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #5092reached in 1979
- Change vs 2018
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
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.
Keenan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cianán in Irish — same name
- Ó Cianáin in Irish — related form
- Cian in Irish — related form
- Keenen in English — spelling variant
- Keanan in English — spelling variant
- Kienan in English — spelling variant
Keenans among us
people named Keenan 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
Keenan 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
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What they receive
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Keenan
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Keenans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Keenan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keenan in 2025?
- Keenan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Keenan with classmates?
- Keenan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keenan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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