Reagan
A feminine English name from a surname derived from the Irish surname Ó Riagáin meaning "little ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 71,023 living Americans carry the first name Reagan. It sits at #244 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Reagan today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reagan births was 2012 (3,322 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reagan. 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 Reagan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Reagan started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Reagan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
71K
~ 1 in 4,826 Americans
Peak year
2012
3,322 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#244
Tracked since 1913
Census
Reagan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 58,854 people with the first name Reagan, which placed it at #811 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
#811
National first-name rank
People counted
59K
58,854 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
19.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reagan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reagan is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Black (5.6%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Reagan 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 Reagan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.1% · 48,293
- Black or African American5.6% · 3,299
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 3,083
- Two or more races5.0% · 2,953
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 946
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 280
Gender
Gender distribution for Reagan
Reagan leans heavily female at 89.3% of total registrations, but 7,744 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Reagan as a male name
- Ranked #1,571 in 2024
- 110 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (366 births)
Reagan as a female name
- Ranked #244 in 2024
- 1,292 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (3,096 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reagan leans strongly female. 52,217 people counted with this name were female (88.7%), compared with 6,638 male bearers (11.3%).
Popularity
Reagan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reagan from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 30,961 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Reagan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reagan 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 Reagan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reagans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Reagan, while Vermont, Hawaii, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,331 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reagan
The name Reagan has its origins in the Irish Gaelic language and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Irish word "Riagain," which means "little king" or "descendant of the king." This name was commonly used in Ireland and its surrounding regions during the medieval period.
In ancient Irish texts and historical records, the name Reagan was associated with several notable figures, including Irish chieftains and warriors. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the 17th century.
Throughout history, there have been several famous individuals who bore the name Reagan. One of the most prominent was Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, who served from 1981 to 1989. Born in 1911 in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan had a distinguished career as an actor before entering politics.
Another notable figure was John Reagan, an American diplomat and lawyer who served as the United States Minister to Portugal from 1841 to 1844. He was born in 1808 in Sevier County, Tennessee, and played a significant role in negotiating treaties with Portugal during his tenure as a diplomat.
In the literary world, the name Reagan is associated with the Irish poet and writer Thomas MacDonagh, who was born in 1878 in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary. MacDonagh, whose full name was Thomas MacDonagh Ó Raghallaigh, was a prominent figure in the Irish literary revival and was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916.
In the world of sports, there was Reagan Foxx, an American basketball player who played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for several teams, including the Houston Comets and the Seattle Storm. She was born in 1978 in Greenville, South Carolina, and had a successful career spanning over a decade.
Another notable figure with the name Reagan was Reagan Wilson, an American actress best known for her roles in television shows like "The Office" and "Bones." She was born in 1983 in Atlanta, Georgia, and has appeared in numerous films and television productions throughout her career.
People
Reagan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reagan 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
Reagan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reagan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 71,023 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reagan 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 4,826 US residents.
Is Reagan a common name?
We classify Reagan as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 72,228 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reagan most popular?
The single biggest year for Reagan was 2012, when 3,322 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reagan is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reagan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 58,854 people with the name Reagan, or 19.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #811 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 Reagan 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 Reagan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reagan leans strongly female. 52,217 people counted with this name were female (88.7%), compared with 6,638 male bearers (11.3%). 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 Reagan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reagan is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Black (5.6%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Reagan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reagan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (48,293 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 Reagan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reagan a female name?
Yes, 89.3% of people registered as Reagan 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.
Is Reagan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reagan 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 Reagan 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 share the name Reagan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.