Dillen
Variant of Dylan, a masculine Welsh name meaning "Great sea".
Name Census estimates that about 735 living Americans carry the first name Dillen. It is a predominantly male name (92.5% of registrations). The average person named Dillen today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dillen births was 2003 (59 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dillen. 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 Dillen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
735
~ 1 in 466,332 Americans
Peak year
2003
59 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,686
Tracked since 1991
Census
Dillen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 685 people with the first name Dillen, which placed it at #16,462 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
#16,462
National first-name rank
People counted
685
685 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dillen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dillen is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Hispanic (9.8%). 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 Dillen 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 Dillen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 476
- Black or African American10.8% · 74
- Hispanic or Latino9.8% · 67
- Two or more races5.3% · 36
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 24
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Dillen
Dillen leans heavily male at 92.5% of total registrations, but 56 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dillen as a male name
- Ranked #12,686 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2003 (40 births)
Dillen as a female name
- Ranked #18,395 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 2003 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dillen leans strongly male. 615 people counted with this name were male (89.4%), compared with 73 female bearers (10.6%).
Popularity
Dillen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dillen from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 362 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
Dillen 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 Dillen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dillens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Indiana, Ohio recorded the most babies named Dillen, while Texas, Ohio, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dillen
The name Dillen is a variant of the English name Dylan, which has its origins in the Welsh language. The Welsh name Dylân is a diminutive form of the Welsh elements "dil" meaning "great" or "famous" and "ân" meaning "born of" or "descendant of." The name Dylân first appeared in the Welsh Triads, a collection of traditional stories and folk tales from the Middle Ages.
The name Dillen is believed to have emerged as a spelling variation of Dylan, particularly among English-speaking populations. One of the earliest recorded instances of this spelling can be found in the book "The Peerage of England" by John Philipot, published in 1625, which mentions a person named "Dillen ap Edred."
In the 16th century, a notable figure named Dillen Petty (born around 1530) was a Welsh poet and member of the Gorsedd, a community of Welsh poets and scholars. His works were preserved in the manuscript collection known as the "Red Book of Hergest."
Another historical figure with the name Dillen was Dillen Williams (1656-1712), a Welsh clergyman and author who served as the Rector of Llanbedr-Dyffryn-Clwyd in Denbighshire, Wales. He published several religious works, including a translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh.
In the 19th century, Dillen Woolcott (1804-1872) was an English architect who designed several notable buildings in London, including the Church of St. Barnabas in Pimlico and the Royal Philharmonic Hall.
More recently, Dillen Malik (1922-2002) was a Pakistani military officer and diplomat who served as the Ambassador of Pakistan to several countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union.
While the name Dillen is relatively uncommon, it has a rich history rooted in Welsh culture and has been borne by notable figures throughout the centuries, particularly in Wales, England, and parts of the British Isles.
People
Dillen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dillen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dillen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dillen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 735 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dillen 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 466,332 US residents.
Is Dillen a common name?
We classify Dillen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 747 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dillen most popular?
The single biggest year for Dillen was 2003, when 59 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dillen is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Dillen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 685 people with the name Dillen, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,462 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 Dillen 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 Dillen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dillen leans strongly male. 615 people counted with this name were male (89.4%), compared with 73 female bearers (10.6%). 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 Dillen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dillen is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.8%) and Hispanic (9.8%). 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 Dillen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dillen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (476 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 Dillen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dillen a male name?
Yes, 92.5% of people registered as Dillen 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 Dillen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dillen 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 Dillen 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 are called Dillen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.