Taegan
Feminine · “Irish Tadhg”
Taegan is given to both — 1,109 girls and 391 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Irish names cross to girls in America and stay male in Ireland. Ryan, Casey, Kelly, Erin, Shannon, Rowan and Teagan are all boys' names or unisex surnames at home and largely female here. The Irish diaspora exported a name stock and the receiving country resexed a large part of it.
How old is the name Taegan?
Taegan first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Taegan alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,100 people named Taegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Taegan most popular?
Taegan peaked in 2008, reaching #2354 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,506 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Tadhg to Taegan
Our story of Taegan
Our reading is that the resexing of Irish names in America follows a rule and the rule is about legibility. A name whose sex is marked in the source language resists crossing: Sean, Patrick, Brian and Liam are unmistakably male to an English speaker and have stayed male. A name that arrives as a surname or as an unfamiliar shape has no such marking, and American parents assign it by sound. Irish surnames end in vowels or in -an, -in and -y far more often than English ones do, and those endings read as female in American English, which is why Kelly, Casey, Erin, Shannon, Rowan, Riley and Teagan have all drifted. In Ireland the same names carry their original associations and have not moved. The result is a set of names that are read as female in one country and male in the country they came from.
Meaning
Irish Tadhg, a poet
From the Irish Tadhg, generally read as a poet, with the diminutive suffix -an, giving Tadhgan, anglicized as Teagan and Teague. The name is male in Ireland. In the United States it is now given chiefly to girls, and this spelling peaks for girls in 2008.
How the name formed
- Tadhg
- Tadhgan
- Teagan
- Taegan
Related forms: Tadhgan · Teagan
Pronouncing Taegan
TEE-gun
Two syllables, stress on the first. The ae digraph here says ee, which is one of its values; TAY-gun is also heard from readers who give it the other. Teagan and Taegan are usually homophones.
Nicknames for Taegan
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
- 1996
- Most girls named
- 200882 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2354reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −15.4%11 in 2025, from 13
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.
Taegan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tadhgan in Irish — related form
- Teagan in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Indiana, West Virginia.
Taegans among us
people named Taegan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Taegan
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 Krissa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Taegan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Krissa climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Krissa's path sketches the road Taegan is walking now.
Taegan 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
Taegan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Taegan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Irish meaning is settled and admirable.
- It works for either sex.
- It is short and easy to say.
- Teagan is the standard spelling and the ae invites a second reading.
- It is male in Ireland.
- The Irish original is unrecognizable in the English form.
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What they receive
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Taegan
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Taegans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Taegan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Taegan in 2025?
- Taegan ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Taegan?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Taegan — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Taegan with classmates?
- Taegan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Taegan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Taegan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Taegan 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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