Ragen
A Celtic name meaning "brave" or "courageous".
Name Census estimates that about 578 living Americans carry the first name Ragen. It is a predominantly female name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Ragen today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ragen births was 2007 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ragen. 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
578
~ 1 in 593,001 Americans
Peak year
2007
27 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
1998 SSA rank
#10,908
Tracked since 1973
Gender
Gender distribution for Ragen
Ragen leans heavily female at 97.5% of total registrations, but 15 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ragen as a male name
- Ranked #10,908 in 1998
- 5 male births in 1998
- Peak: 1973 (5 births)
Ragen as a female name
- Ranked #14,854 in 2021
- 6 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2007 (27 births)
Popularity
Ragen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ragen from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 192 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
Ragen 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 Ragen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ragens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ragen
The name Ragen is of Old Norse origin, derived from the Old Norse word "regn," which means "rain." It is believed to have emerged as a name around the 9th or 10th century, during the Viking age, when the Norse peoples inhabited Scandinavia and other parts of Northern Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ragen can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of stories written in the 13th and 14th centuries that recount the lives and adventures of the Norse settlers in Iceland. In these sagas, Ragen is mentioned as a male name, often associated with the fierce and courageous warriors of the time.
During the medieval period, the name Ragen was also found in other parts of Northern Europe, particularly in areas with strong Norse influence, such as parts of England and Scotland. It is recorded in some historical documents from this era, although its usage remained relatively rare.
The first notable person in history with the name Ragen was Ragen the Wise, a Norse chieftain and poet who lived in Iceland in the 10th century. He is remembered for his wise counsel and his contributions to the preservation of Norse poetry and legends.
Another famous bearer of the name Ragen was Ragen the Bold, a Viking warrior from Norway who is said to have sailed to the coast of North America in the late 10th century, several centuries before the voyages of Christopher Columbus. While the historical evidence for his journey is limited, Ragen the Bold has become a legendary figure in Norse folklore.
In the 12th century, there was a Ragen the Scribe, a monk from Denmark who is credited with transcribing and preserving several important manuscripts, including some of the earliest known versions of the Norse sagas.
In the 14th century, a Norwegian nobleman named Ragen Eriksson was a prominent figure in the court of King Haakon VI of Norway. He served as a trusted advisor and diplomat, and his name appears in several historical records from that time.
Finally, in the 16th century, there was a Swedish explorer named Ragen Andersson who is believed to have been one of the first Europeans to set foot in what is now Alaska. His journey and discoveries are recorded in some early Swedish travel journals.
While the name Ragen has largely fallen out of use in modern times, it remains an intriguing part of Norse and Scandinavian history, evoking images of the fierce and adventurous Vikings who once roamed the seas and lands of Northern Europe.
People
Ragen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ragen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ragen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ragen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 578 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ragen 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 593,001 US residents.
Is Ragen a common name?
We classify Ragen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 598 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ragen most popular?
The single biggest year for Ragen was 2007, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ragen is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ragen a female name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Ragen in the SSA data are female. 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.