Kerrigan
Feminine · “descendant of the little dark one”
Kerrigan is given to both — 2,460 girls and 111 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Kerrigan is an Irish surname built on ciar, a word for dark brown — the same element that gives Kieran and Ciara.
How old is the name Kerrigan?
Kerrigan first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Kerrigan alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 2,400 people named Kerrigan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kerrigan most popular?
Kerrigan peaked in 1996, reaching #1551 nationally. Today it ranks #4546, 2,995 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kerrigan
Ours, offered as ours. Irish naming had a precise palette for describing people: ciar is a dark brown, dubh is black, donn is a mid brown, fionn is fair or bright, rua is red. Each generated names and surnames — Kieran, Duff, Dunne, Finn, Rory. In a population where coloring varied, these were the practical way to tell two men with the same name apart, and they hardened into surnames when Ireland adopted them.
Meaning
descendant of the little dark one
From Irish Ó Ciaragáin, on ciar, dark or black-brown, with a double diminutive. Irish had several color words for hair and complexion and used them heavily as bynames — donn for brown, fionn for fair, dubh for black.
Pronouncing Kerrigan
KER-ih-gun
Three syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Kerrigan
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 2012118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1551reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%30 in 2025, from 36
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.
Kerrigan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Ciaragáin in Irish — related form
- Kerrigan in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio.
Kerrigans among us
people named Kerrigan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 53,576 born in 2025 was named Kerrigan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kerrigan
- #4546
- Kerrigan on the 2025 chart
- #924
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kerrigan went to 30 girls in 2025, but Kerigan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 36, which makes it the 924th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,622 places above the chart.
- Kerrigan30
- Kerigan6
About 1 girl in 44,646 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 53,576 for Kerrigan 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
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Keisa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kerrigan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Keisa climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Keisa's path sketches the road Kerrigan is walking now.
Kerrigan 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 Kerrigan is headed
Kerrigan is easing off slowly — about 17% 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.
Kerrigan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kerrigan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Irish meaning with a genuinely systematic color vocabulary behind it.
- Kerri and Kerry are both complete names in their own right.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
- Eight letters and three syllables is a fair amount for early handwriting.
- It is used for both sexes, so forms may guess wrong.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kerrigan
Feminine · #4546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kerrigans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Kerrigan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kerrigan?
- Kerrigan is the most-used spelling in US records — 30 of the 36 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kerigan.
- How popular is the name Kerrigan in 2025?
- Kerrigan ranks #4546 among US girl names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kerrigan?
- About 1 in every 53,576 US girls born in 2025 was named Kerrigan — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kerrigan with classmates?
- Kerrigan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kerrigan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Amie#4546 · Rashell#4546 · Renatta#4546 · Raisa#4546 · Amena#4546 · Aryn#4546 · Nadiya#4546 · Jeanne#4546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kerrigan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kerrigan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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