Conlan
Meaning "great wolf", a masculine given name of Irish Gaelic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 893 living Americans carry the first name Conlan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Conlan today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Conlan births was 2005 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Conlan. 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 Conlan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
893
~ 1 in 383,823 Americans
Peak year
2005
50 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,845
Tracked since 1987
Census
Conlan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 820 people with the first name Conlan, which placed it at #14,393 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
#14,393
National first-name rank
People counted
820
820 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Conlan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Conlan is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.6%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Conlan 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 Conlan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 686
- Two or more races7.6% · 62
- Hispanic or Latino4.4% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 20
- Black or African American1.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Conlan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Conlan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 364 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Conlan 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 Conlan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Conlans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Illinois, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Conlan, while Texas, Ohio, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Conlan
The name Conlan is of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic words "con" meaning hound or wolf, and "lan" meaning full or complete. It is believed to have originated in the medieval period, around the 10th century CE, when Irish Gaelic names were widely used across Ireland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Conlan can be found in the Irish epic tale, "The Cattle Raid of Cooley", which dates back to the 8th or 9th century. In this ancient text, Conlan is the name of a warrior and nephew of the legendary hero Cú Chulainn. This early literary reference suggests that the name was already in use among the Gaelic people of Ireland during that time.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Conlan remained predominantly concentrated in Ireland, particularly among families and clans with strong Irish heritage and ties to the Gaelic tradition. However, as Irish migration increased in later centuries, the name slowly began to spread to other parts of the world.
One notable figure bearing the name Conlan was Conlan of Ardskeagh (1624-1677), an Irish soldier and landowner who fought in the Irish Confederate Wars of the 1640s. Another historically significant individual was Conlan John Scanlan (1866-1950), an Irish-American prelate who served as the Bishop of Salt Lake City from 1927 to 1948.
In more recent times, the name Conlan has gained recognition through individuals such as Conlan Sunderson (born 1990), a Canadian professional ice hockey player, and Conlan Scanlan (born 1998), an Irish professional mixed martial artist.
While the name Conlan is not as common as some other Irish names, it has maintained a strong connection to its Gaelic roots and continues to be used by families with Irish heritage or an appreciation for the rich cultural traditions of Ireland.
People
Conlan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Conlan 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
Conlan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Conlan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 893 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Conlan 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 383,823 US residents.
Is Conlan a common name?
We classify Conlan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 905 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Conlan most popular?
The single biggest year for Conlan was 2005, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Conlan is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Conlan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 820 people with the name Conlan, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,393 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 Conlan 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 Conlan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Conlan appears almost entirely male. Of the 816 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Conlan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Conlan is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.6%) and Hispanic (4.4%). 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 Conlan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Conlan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (686 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 Conlan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Conlan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Conlan 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 Conlan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Conlan 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 Conlan 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 Conlan as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Conlan, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.