Kaegan
Irish given name meaning "son of fire" or "affectionate one".
Name Census estimates that about 599 living Americans carry the first name Kaegan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 65.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Kaegan today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaegan births was 2007 (66 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaegan. 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
599
~ 1 in 572,211 Americans
Peak year
2007
66 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,089
Tracked since 1992
Census
Kaegan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 567 people with the first name Kaegan, which placed it at #18,871 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
#18,871
National first-name rank
People counted
567
567 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kaegan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaegan is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Kaegan 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 Kaegan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.2% · 438
- Black or African American8.1% · 46
- Two or more races7.4% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Kaegan
Kaegan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 607 total registrations, 400 (65.9%) were male and 207 (34.1%) were female.
Kaegan as a male name
- Ranked #13,172 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (28 births)
Kaegan as a female name
- Ranked #13,089 in 2018
- 7 female births in 2018
- Peak: 2007 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kaegan on both sides of the split. Of the 565 people counted with this name, 363 were male (64.2%) and 202 were female (35.8%).
Popularity
Kaegan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaegan 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 301 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
Kaegan 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 Kaegan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaegans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaegan
The name Kaegan has its origins in Ireland, where it is a variant spelling of the Irish Gaelic name Caogán. This name is derived from the Irish word "caog," which means "blind" or "one-eyed." The name was likely given to a person with some kind of visual impairment or perhaps as a nickname.
The earliest recorded use of the name Kaegan dates back to the 17th century in Ireland. It was not a particularly common name, but it did appear in some historical records and documents from that time period.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Kaegan was Kaegan O'Reilly, an Irish soldier who fought in the Williamite War in Ireland between 1689 and 1691. He was born around 1660 and died in the early 1700s.
Another notable figure with the name Kaegan was Kaegan O'Connor, an Irish poet and playwright who lived in the late 18th century. He was born in County Cork in 1745 and is known for his contributions to Irish literature, particularly his plays that explored themes of Irish identity and culture.
In the 19th century, there was a Kaegan Fitzgerald, who was an Irish nationalist and political activist. He was born in County Limerick in 1820 and was involved in various political movements seeking Irish independence from British rule.
Moving into the 20th century, Kaegan McDermott was an Irish-American author and journalist who was born in New York City in 1901. He wrote several books about Irish-American culture and his experiences growing up in an Irish immigrant family.
Another individual with the name Kaegan was Kaegan O'Brien, an Irish professional boxer who competed in the middleweight division in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in Dublin in 1912 and had a successful career as a prizefighter before retiring in the late 1940s.
While the name Kaegan is not as common as some other Irish names, it has a rich history and has been borne by several notable individuals throughout the centuries. Its roots in Irish Gaelic and its connection to visual impairment or nicknames have contributed to its unique character and significance in Irish culture and history.
People
Kaegan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaegan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kaegan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaegan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 599 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaegan 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 572,211 US residents.
Is Kaegan a common name?
We classify Kaegan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 607 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaegan most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaegan was 2007, when 66 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaegan 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 Kaegan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 567 people with the name Kaegan, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,871 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 Kaegan 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 Kaegan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kaegan on both sides of the split. Of the 565 people counted with this name, 363 were male (64.2%) and 202 were female (35.8%). 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 Kaegan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kaegan is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Kaegan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kaegan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.2% (438 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 Kaegan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kaegan a male name?
Yes, 65.9% of people registered as Kaegan 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 Kaegan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kaegan 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 Kaegan 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 Kaegan?
You can see how many Americans are named Kaegan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.