Koran
Masculine · “Arabic qur'an”
Koran is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 629 boys against 10 girls since 1880.
The book's name is an instruction. Qur'an means recitation, from a verb meaning to read aloud, and the first word revealed, according to the tradition, was iqra: recite. The scripture is named for the act of saying it, not for the act of writing it down.
How old is the name Koran?
Koran first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Koran alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 600 people named Koran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Koran most popular?
Koran peaked in 1993, reaching #2697 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 6,213 places below that high. See the whole 1993 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From qara'a to Koran
The story of Koran
The word qur'an appears inside the text itself, describing what the text is: something recited. That emphasis runs through the whole tradition. The revelation is understood to have been received orally over about twenty-three years, memorised by the community, and only collected in writing after Muhammad's death; the science of recitation, tajwid, governs how it is to be said aloud, and a hafiz is someone who has memorised it entirely. The English spelling with a K and no apostrophe is the older convention, standard in English from the seventeenth century until the twentieth, when Qur'an replaced it in scholarly and then general use because it represents the Arabic qaf more accurately. The two spellings are the same word, and the shift between them is a good marker of when an English text was written.
Meaning
Arabic qur'an, recitation
Koran is an older English transliteration of Arabic al-Qur'an, the recitation, from qara'a, to read or recite. Using the scripture's name as a personal name is not an Islamic practice, and the American entries most likely reflect other sources, including the Irish surname Curran and coined names built on the -ran ending. The peak is 1993.
How the name formed
- qara'a
- qur'an
- Koran
Related forms: Qur'an · Curran
Pronouncing Koran
kor-AN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Arabic says kur-AAN with a q made far back in the throat, a sound English does not have.
Nicknames for Koran
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 199931 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2697reached in 1993
- Change vs 2024
- +60.0%8 in 2025, 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.
Koran in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Qur'an in Arabic — transliteration
- Curran in English — related form
Korans among us
people named Koran are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Koran
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 Fergus test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Koran's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Fergus climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Fergus's path sketches the road Koran is walking now.
Koran 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
Koran beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Koran in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and five letters, easy to say.
- The stressed ending gives it a firm final beat.
- The word behind it has a clear, documented meaning.
- It is the English name of a scripture, which many will find inappropriate as a personal name.
- The spelling is an older convention now largely replaced.
- Curran and Coran are separate names with similar sounds.
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What they receive
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Koran
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Korans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Koran are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Koran in 2025?
- Koran ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Koran?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Koran — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Koran with classmates?
- Koran will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Koran
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Koran? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Koran and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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