Raylan
Masculine
Raylan is given to both — 6,856 boys and 586 girls since 1880. See Raylan as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Raylan is American-made: the familiar syllable Ray joined to the -lan ending that English already knew from Harlan, Waylon and Dylan. It sat quietly in the records for years before Elmore Leonard gave the name to Raylan Givens, the hat-wearing deputy US marshal of his crime novels, and the FX series Justified carried it to a much wider audience in the 2010s. Two beats, stress on the first, and no one has to ask how to say it.
How old is the name Raylan?
Raylan first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Raylan is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,800 people named Raylan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raylan most popular?
Raylan peaked in 2015, reaching #473 nationally. Today it ranks #800, 327 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Raylan
The name belongs to the American habit of building new given names out of familiar pieces — Ray at the front, a soft -lan behind it. It appears in US birth records in small numbers well before it had any famous bearer, which means parents were assembling it on their own. Then Elmore Leonard used Raylan Givens for the Kentucky-born lawman of Pronto, Riding the Rap and later Raylan, and the television adaptation Justified put the name in front of a very large audience for six seasons. The states where Raylan is strongest today — Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky — are also the country the character came from, and the show's Harlan County setting sits one letter away from the name's own ending.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Raylan has no documented etymology — it is a modern English-language coinage rather than an inherited name. What is clear is its shape: the element Ray, long used on its own and as a short form of Raymond, plus the -lan ending shared with Harlan and, in sound, with Waylon and Dylan.
Pronouncing Raylan
RAY-lan
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second is a light 'lan' rather than 'lawn'. Almost no one mispronounces it; the spelling is what gets queried.
Nicknames for Raylan
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
- 2015630 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #473reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- −15.9%311 in 2025, from 370
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.
Raylan in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky.
Raylans among us
people named Raylan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,492 born in 2025 was named Raylan
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 Augustine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raylan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Augustine climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Augustine's path sketches the road Raylan is walking now.
Raylan 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 Raylan is headed
Raylan 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.
Raylan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raylan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds out exactly as it looks — RAY-lan — so it survives roll calls, phone calls and drive-throughs without correction.
- Comes with Ray, a short form that has stood on its own as a name for generations, giving a child a plain option and a fuller one.
- Sits comfortably beside names people already know — Waylon, Harlan, Dylan — so it registers as familiar even to someone hearing it for the first time.
- Rare enough in practice that a Raylan is unlikely to share the name with a classmate.
- Has a real literary anchor in Elmore Leonard's novels, which is more history than most recently coined names can claim.
- The spelling has rivals — Raylen, Raelan, Raylin — so expect to spell it aloud even though the pronunciation is obvious.
- For anyone who watched Justified, the name points straight at one character: a marshal quick with a gun. Some parents like that association; it is worth knowing it exists.
- This is a very young name. Nearly everyone carrying it is still a child, so there is no grown Raylan to picture — which cuts both ways, since the name arrives without anyone else's shadow on it.
- Its wave has crested and is easing back, which mostly means fewer Raylans in the years just behind your child than in the years just ahead of them.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Raylan
Masculine · #800 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Raylans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,800 people named Raylan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Raylan in 2025?
- Raylan ranks #800 among US boy names in 2025, with 311 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raylan?
- About 1 in every 5,492 US boys born in 2025 was named Raylan — 311 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raylan with classmates?
- Raylan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raylan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaisen#800 · Keith#800 · Zeke#800 · Calum#799 · Crue#797 · Thaddeus#797 · Everest#796 · Brewer#804
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raylan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raylan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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