Coen
A masculine Welsh name meaning "Brave leader; supreme commander".
Name Census estimates that about 4,353 living Americans carry the first name Coen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Coen today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Coen births was 2016 (291 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Coen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Coen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Coen is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.4K
~ 1 in 78,740 Americans
Peak year
2016
291 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,119
Tracked since 1991
Census
Coen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,303 people with the first name Coen, which placed it at #5,257 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,257
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,303 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Coen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coen is White at 82.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.2%) and Hispanic (5.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Coen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Coen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.0% · 2,709
- Two or more races7.2% · 239
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 194
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 71
- Black or African American1.7% · 57
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Coen
Out of the 4,389 babies given the name Coen since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Coen as a male name
- Ranked #1,119 in 2024
- 190 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (291 births)
Coen as a female name
- Ranked #13,801 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2022 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Coen leans strongly male. 3,263 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 35 female bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Coen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Coen from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,194 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Coen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Coen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Coen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Coens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Coen, while North Dakota, Massachusetts, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 85 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Coen
The name Coen has its origins in the Dutch language and culture. It is believed to have derived from the Middle Dutch word "coen," meaning "brave" or "bold." The name can be traced back to the 12th century in the Netherlands and surrounding regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Coen is found in the Dutch epic poem "Van den vos Reynaerde" (Reynard the Fox), written in the 13th century. The name appears as a character in the poem, suggesting its usage during that time period.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the name gained prominence due to the influence of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, a Dutch colonial officer and governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Born in 1587, Coen played a significant role in the expansion of Dutch colonial power in Southeast Asia.
Another notable historical figure bearing the name Coen was Cornelis Coen, a Dutch Golden Age painter from the 17th century. Known for his portraiture and genre scenes, Cornelis Coen was born in 1592 and contributed to the rich artistic heritage of the Netherlands during that era.
Moving forward in time, Coen van Vrijberghe de Coningh, a Belgian nobleman and politician, lived from 1786 to 1857. He served as the Governor of the Province of Brabant and played an influential role in the political landscape of Belgium in the early 19th century.
In the literary realm, Coen Teulings, a Dutch novelist and poet, made his mark in the 20th century. Born in 1920, Teulings is renowned for his works that explored themes of love, loss, and the human condition.
While the name Coen has Dutch origins, it has also been adopted and used in other cultures and languages over time, although its usage remains more prevalent in the Netherlands and among Dutch communities around the world.
People
Coen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Coen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Coen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Coen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,353 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Coen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 78,740 US residents.
Is Coen a common name?
We classify Coen as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,389 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Coen most popular?
The single biggest year for Coen was 2016, when 291 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Coen is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Coen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,303 people with the name Coen, or 1.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,257 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Coen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Coen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Coen leans strongly male. 3,263 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 35 female bearers (1.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Coen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coen is White at 82.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.2%) and Hispanic (5.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Coen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Coen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.0% (2,709 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Coen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Coen a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Coen in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Coen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Coen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Coen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Coen?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Coen, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.