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Kegan

Masculine · “Son of the little little fire”

Kegan is given to both — 3,848 boys and 237 girls since 1880. See other names given to both

1970high 1992
#5608 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year
rare16 boys in 2025

Kegan is one of the English spellings of an Irish surname built on a very old name: Mac Aodhagáin runs on Aodh, the fire god and the ordinary Irish word for fire, with two diminutive endings stacked on it.

How old is the name Kegan?

Kegan first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Kegan alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 3,800 people named Kegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Kegan most popular?

Kegan peaked in 1992, reaching #792 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 4,816 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.

Compare this nameMore “K” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Kegan

The Mac Aodhagáin were a hereditary legal family in Connacht and Ormond who ran law schools and kept the Brehon law texts; their name anglicized as Egan, Keegan and Keagan. Emigration spread it widely. As an American given name Keegan appears in the 1970s and rises through the 1990s in the general Irish surname wave, alongside Declan, Brennan and Rowan. Kegan is the shorter spelling, peaking in 1992, and it also functions as a respelling of the German-derived Kegan and of Regan for some bearers.

Meaning

Son of the little little fire

From Irish Mac Aodhagáin, from Aodh, the name of a Celtic fire deity and the Old Irish word for fire, with the diminutives -ag and -án. The reading is standard, and the doubled diminutive is genuine — the name means something like son of little Aodh. Keegan, Kegan and Keagan are all anglicizations of the same surname.

How the name formed

  1. Aodh
  2. Mac Aodhagáin
  3. Keegan
  4. Kegan

Related forms: Mac Aodhagáin · Keegan · Egan

Pronouncing Kegan

KEE-gun

Two syllables, stress on the first. The Irish Mac Aodhagáin is closer to mak-AY-ga-in, which is a different name to the ear.

Nicknames for Kegan

Moderate

KegThe front, though it lands on a barrel
KeeA soft phonetic clipping
GanThe back, a rare short form
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

BOYS NAMED · 1970–20251758801751619702025

US babies named Kegan per year from 1970 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#7921970s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1970
Most boys named
1992175 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#792reached in 1992
Change vs 2024
−33.3%16 in 2025, from 24
Kegan sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 1992, with 175 boys. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Kegan in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Mac Aodhagáin in Irish — related form
  • Keegan in English — spelling variant
  • Egan in Irish — related form

Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Illinois.

Kegans among us

3,800

people named Kegan are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Kegan

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

Spellings of Kegan

#5608
Kegan on the 2025 chart
#524
counting every spelling

The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kegan went to 16 boys in 2025, but Keegan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 465, which makes it the 524th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,084 places above the chart.

About 1 boy in 3,673 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 106,755 for Kegan 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

III

Is it right for you

The Wilkie test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kegan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wilkie climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wilkie's path sketches the road Kegan is walking now.

40%chance Kegan will feel dated by 2040
Kegan, aligned on its peakWilkie· peak 1940not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-30 yrs+30 yrsWilkie · #4979Kegan today
Kegan today is about where Wilkie stood in 1973 — 33 years past a #792-sized peak. Within 15 years, Wilkie had drifted out of the mainstream charts.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Kegan 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

Kegan beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Kegan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Keganthis name16#5608Rolland16#5608Llewellyn16#5608Arlie16#5608Gerrit16#5608

US boys given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • The Irish source is genuine and connects to a hereditary legal family.
  • Everyone can say it after one hearing.
  • Five letters and two syllables keep it compact.
What to consider
  • Keegan is the commoner spelling and will be written for it.
  • The front clipping lands on the word keg.
  • Kegan, Keegan, Keagan and Kaegan are four spellings of one sound.

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Kegan

Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Kegans are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,800 people named Kegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How do you spell Kegan?
Kegan is one of 2 recorded spellings. Keegan is the more common one — 449 births in 2025 against 16 for Kegan.
How popular is the name Kegan in 2025?
Kegan ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Kegan?
About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Kegan — 16 in all.
Will my child share the name Kegan with classmates?
Kegan will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Kegan

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kegan? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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