Reegan
Of Irish origin, meaning "little ruler" or "king".
Name Census estimates that about 1,510 living Americans carry the first name Reegan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Reegan today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reegan births was 2009 (107 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reegan. 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 Reegan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Reegan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 226,990 Americans
Peak year
2009
107 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,712
Tracked since 1990
Census
Reegan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,454 people with the first name Reegan, which placed it at #9,516 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
#9,516
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,454 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reegan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reegan is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.7%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Reegan 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 Reegan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.9% · 1,263
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 68
- Two or more races3.9% · 57
- Black or African American2.3% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 14
Gender
Gender distribution for Reegan
Reegan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,529 total registrations, 351 (23.0%) were male and 1,178 (77.0%) were female.
Reegan as a male name
- Ranked #13,712 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2009 (27 births)
Reegan as a female name
- Ranked #14,788 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2009 (80 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Reegan on both sides of the split. Of the 1,455 people counted with this name, 339 were male (23.3%) and 1,116 were female (76.7%).
Popularity
Reegan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reegan 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 728 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
Reegan 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 Reegan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reegans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Reegan, while Iowa, Arizona, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reegan
The given name Reegan is an anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Riagáin, which itself is derived from the old Irish word "rí" meaning "king". This suggests that the name has its origins in ancient Celtic culture, potentially tracing back over a thousand years or more.
In its original Irish Gaelic form, the name Riagáin was relatively uncommon, but its anglicized variations like Reegan and Regan gained greater popularity, especially after Irish immigration to English-speaking countries increased in the 19th century. While no definitive records exist of the name's first use, some of the earliest examples can be found in medieval Irish annals and genealogical records.
One of the most notable historical figures bearing this name was Regan, the second-born daughter of King Lear in the legendary tragic play of the same name by William Shakespeare, written around 1606. Although a fictional character, Shakespeare's inclusion of the name in his iconic work likely contributed to its wider recognition and use in the English-speaking world.
In the 17th century, a prominent bearer of the name was Regan Vaughan (1590-1659), a Welsh landowner and Member of Parliament for Merionethshire during the English Civil War. Another notable figure was Regan O'Reilly (1800-1885), an Irish-born Dominican friar who served as a missionary in Grenada and was known for his work in education and promoting the abolition of slavery.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals with the name Reegan was Reegan Lord (1903-1995), an American actress and dancer who appeared in several Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. Another noteworthy bearer was Reegan McCullough (1920-2010), a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan from 1964 to 1982.
People
Reegan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reegan 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
Reegan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reegan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,510 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reegan 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 226,990 US residents.
Is Reegan a common name?
We classify Reegan as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,529 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reegan most popular?
The single biggest year for Reegan was 2009, when 107 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reegan is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reegan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,454 people with the name Reegan, or 0.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,516 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 Reegan 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 Reegan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Reegan on both sides of the split. Of the 1,455 people counted with this name, 339 were male (23.3%) and 1,116 were female (76.7%). 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 Reegan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reegan is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.7%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Reegan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reegan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.9% (1,263 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 Reegan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reegan a female name?
Yes, 77.0% of people registered as Reegan 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 Reegan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reegan 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 Reegan 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 have the name Reegan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.