Fintan
Fair-minded or white-haired protector of Irish origin.
Name Census estimates that about 415 living Americans carry the first name Fintan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fintan today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fintan births was 2010 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fintan. 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.
People living today
415
~ 1 in 825,914 Americans
Peak year
2010
27 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,378
Tracked since 1998
Popularity
Fintan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fintan 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 204 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Fintan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fintan 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 Fintan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fintans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Virginia recorded the most babies named Fintan, while Virginia, Illinois, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Fintan
The name Fintan is an Irish masculine given name that has its origins in the ancient Celtic languages. It is derived from the Old Irish word "findtan", which means "fair" or "white fire". This suggests that the name may have originally been associated with someone who had a bright or radiant appearance.
The name has been used in Ireland since ancient times, and it is believed to have been particularly popular among the Gaelic-speaking peoples of the island. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fintan is found in the Irish mythological tradition, where it is mentioned in the Fenian Cycle of stories and legends.
Fintan mac Bóchra is a legendary figure in Irish mythology who is said to have lived for several centuries and witnessed many important events in Irish history. According to the myths, Fintan was one of the few survivors of the great flood that inundated the world, and he lived to tell the tale of Ireland's past to the great Irish historian and storyteller, Fintan Fíneces.
In the early Christian era, the name Fintan was borne by several notable Irish saints and scholars. Saint Fintan of Clonenagh (c. 524 - 594) was an Irish abbot and founder of the monastery of Clonenagh in County Laois. Saint Fintan of Rheinau (c. 795 - 878) was an Irish monk and missionary who traveled to Switzerland and established a monastery in Rheinau.
During the medieval period, the name Fintan continued to be popular in Ireland. Fintan O'Gorman (fl. 1150) was an Irish poet and historian who wrote extensively about the history and genealogy of the Irish people. Fintan O'Toole (c. 1170 - 1230) was an Irish clergyman who served as the Archbishop of Tuam in the early 13th century.
In more recent times, the name Fintan has been borne by several notable Irish figures, including Fintan O'Toole (born 1958), an Irish journalist and literary critic, and Fintan O'Leary (born 1971), an Irish hurler who played for the Cork senior hurling team.
People
Fintan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fintan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Fintan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fintan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 415 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fintan 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 825,914 US residents.
Is Fintan a common name?
We classify Fintan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 419 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fintan most popular?
The single biggest year for Fintan was 2010, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fintan is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Fintan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fintan 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.
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.