Mulan
Feminine · “wood orchid”
Mulan is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 743 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Mulan is a magnolia in Chinese — mu lan, the wood orchid — and the ballad that carries the name is fifteen hundred years old.
How old is the name Mulan?
Mulan first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Mulan is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Mulan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mulan most popular?
Mulan peaked in 2020, reaching #2441 nationally. Today it ranks #2458, 17 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Where it comes from
From mu lan to Mulan
The story of Mulan
The Ballad of Mulan is a short folk poem from around the sixth century in which a daughter goes to war in her father's place and serves twelve years without being discovered; the poem ends with a joke about telling a male hare from a female one when both are running. It appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
wood orchid, magnolia
From the Chinese mulan, 木兰 — mu, 'wood', and lan, 'orchid' — the magnolia. The Ballad of Mulan, a folk poem of the Northern Wei period, gives the name to a woman who takes her father's place in the army. The Chinese is documented.
How the name formed
- mu lan
- Mulan
Related forms: 木兰 · Mu Lan
Pronouncing Mulan
moo-LAHN
Two syllables, stress on the second. Mandarin gives each syllable a tone the Latin alphabet does not show.
Nicknames for Mulan
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
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 202572 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2441reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +2.9%72 in 2025, from 70
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.
Mulan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 木兰 in Chinese — transliteration
- Mu Lan in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Florida.
Mulans among us
people named Mulan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 22,323 born in 2025 was named Mulan
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 Beatris test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mulan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Beatris climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Beatris's path sketches the road Mulan is walking now.
Mulan 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 Mulan is headed
Mulan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Mulan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mulan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the ballad is fifteen hundred years old is a first-rate fact.
- The magnolia meaning is concrete and beautiful.
- Lan is available as a short form that is a real Chinese name.
- One animated film dominates the Western association.
- Mandarin tone is lost entirely in English.
- It reads as specifically Chinese.
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What they receive
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Mulan
Feminine · #2458 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mulans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Mulan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mulan in 2025?
- Mulan ranks #2458 among US girl names in 2025, with 72 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mulan?
- About 1 in every 22,323 US girls born in 2025 was named Mulan — 72 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mulan with classmates?
- Mulan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mulan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edna#2458 · Jailyn#2458 · Jesse#2458 · Roxy#2458 · Aiyla#2458 · Zaniya#2458 · Alanis#2458 · Samia#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mulan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mulan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
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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