Dyllyn
A Welsh variant of the name Dylan meaning "great sea" or "great tide".
Name Census estimates that about 6 living Americans carry the first name Dyllyn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Dyllyn today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dyllyn births was 2003 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dyllyn. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Dyllyn. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
6
~ 1 in 57,125,723 Americans
Peak year
2003
6 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2003 SSA rank
#9,937
Tracked since 2003
Popularity
Dyllyn: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Dyllyn 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 Dyllyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Dyllyn
The name Dyllyn has its origins in the ancient Celtic languages of Wales and Cornwall, dating back to the 5th century AD. It is believed to be derived from the Welsh word "dyl", meaning "to follow" or "to pursue", and the Old Cornish word "lyn", meaning "lake" or "pool". Together, these roots suggest a meaning along the lines of "one who follows the water" or "pursuer of lakes".
In early Welsh and Cornish folklore, Dyllyn was often associated with figures tied to fishing, boating, or water-related trades and customs. There are records of a Dyllyn ap Gwynfor, a renowned fisherman from the village of Llanrwst in the 7th century, who was said to have caught a legendary trout that could speak.
The name gained wider recognition in the 9th century, when a Dyllyn ap Rhys rose to prominence as a skilled navigator and explorer. He is credited with leading expeditions to the Faroe Islands and even venturing as far as the coasts of Greenland, earning him the moniker "Dyllyn the Seafarer".
One of the earliest written mentions of the name can be found in the Annales Cambriae, a chronicle of Welsh history from the 10th century, which records the death of a nobleman named Dyllyn ap Cadwgan in the year 963.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Dyllyn appeared in various Welsh and Cornish genealogical records, though it was not particularly widespread. Notable figures include Dyllyn Goch (c. 1290-1355), a Welsh archer renowned for his skill at the Battle of Crécy, and Dyllyn Penrhyn (c. 1420-1484), a Cornish politician who served as Mayor of Bodmin.
In more recent times, the name has remained relatively uncommon, but there have been a few individuals who have carried it. Dyllyn Meredith (1845-1923) was a Welsh poet and author who wrote extensively about life in rural Wales, while Dyllyn Griffiths (1908-1992) was a Cornish artist known for her landscapes and seascapes.
People
Dyllyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dyllyn 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
Dyllyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dyllyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dyllyn 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 57,125,723 US residents.
Is Dyllyn a common name?
We classify Dyllyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 22.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dyllyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Dyllyn was 2003, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dyllyn is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Dyllyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dyllyn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Dyllyn 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 Dyllyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dyllyn 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 Dyllyn 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have the name Dyllyn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.