Taggart
Masculine · “Irish Mac an tSagairt”
Taggart means son of the priest. The Irish Mac an tSagairt says so plainly, and it is not a joke: hereditary clerical families were normal in the medieval Irish and Scottish church, church offices passed from father to son, and the surnames record it. Clerical celibacy arrived late and unevenly at the northern edge of Europe.
How old is the name Taggart?
Taggart first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Taggart alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 700 people named Taggart are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Taggart most popular?
Taggart peaked in 1970, reaching #2399 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 5,844 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From sagart to Taggart
The story of Taggart
The early Irish church was monastic and its institutions were tied to kin groups. Abbacies and church lands were held by families and passed down within them, and the erenagh, the hereditary lay administrator of church property, was a recognized office for centuries. Clerical marriage was widespread, and the reform movement of the eleventh and twelfth centuries that imposed celibacy on the western church took a long time to reach the periphery and never entirely succeeded before the Reformation. The surnames are the residue: Taggart, son of the priest; MacNab, son of the abbot; MacPherson, son of the parson; MacVicar, son of the vicar; Gilchrist and Gillespie, servant of Christ and servant of the bishop. Each of them records a relationship that later canon law would have made impossible, and the families that carry them are the descendants.
Meaning
Irish Mac an tSagairt, son of the priest
From Irish and Scottish Gaelic mac, son, an, the, and sagart, a priest, which is itself borrowed from Latin sacerdos. The initial t is the Gaelic grammatical mutation that appears after the article in this construction. The surname occurs across Ireland and the Scottish Highlands as Taggart, MacTaggart and McEntaggart. It peaks as an American given name in 1970.
How the name formed
- sagart
- Mac an tSagairt
- Taggart
Related forms: MacTaggart · Mac an tSagairt
Pronouncing Taggart
TAG-art
Two syllables, stress on the first, short a. The Gaelic sagart is SAG-art with the same stress, and the mutated t after the article is what produces the initial T of the anglicized form.
Nicknames for Taggart
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
- 1964
- Most boys named
- 201335 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2399reached in 1970
- Change vs 2024
- +12.5%9 in 2025, from 8
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.
Taggart in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- MacTaggart in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Mac an tSagairt in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Utah.
Taggarts among us
people named Taggart are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Taggart
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 Able test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Taggart's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Able climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Able's path sketches the road Taggart is walking now.
Taggart 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
Taggart beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Taggart in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is fully documented and unexpectedly informative.
- Tag is a short and current-sounding clip.
- It fits the fashion for Gaelic surnames as boys' names.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- The obvious clip is a children's game.
- A long-running British television series carried the name.
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What they receive
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Taggart
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Taggarts 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 Taggart are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Taggart in 2025?
- Taggart ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Taggart?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Taggart — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Taggart with classmates?
- Taggart will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Taggart
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Taggart? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Taggart and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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