Reghan
A feminine variation of the Irish name "Reagan" meaning "little king".
Name Census estimates that about 880 living Americans carry the first name Reghan. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Reghan today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reghan births was 2005 (54 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reghan. 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
880
~ 1 in 389,494 Americans
Peak year
2005
54 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,121
Tracked since 1983
Census
Reghan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 876 people with the first name Reghan, which placed it at #13,689 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
#13,689
National first-name rank
People counted
876
876 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reghan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reghan is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (7.5%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Reghan 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 Reghan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 736
- Black or African American7.5% · 66
- Two or more races4.1% · 36
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Reghan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reghan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 455 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
Reghan 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 Reghan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reghans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas recorded the most babies named Reghan, while Texas, Tennessee, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reghan
The name Reghan is an Anglicized version of the Irish Gaelic name Riagáin, which is a diminutive form of the name Rí, meaning "king." The name has its roots in ancient Celtic culture and can be traced back to the medieval period in Ireland.
The earliest recorded use of the name Reghan dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in various Irish manuscripts and historical records. One of the most notable historical figures bearing this name was Reghan Ua Lochlainn, a powerful Irish king who ruled over the northern region of Ulster in the late 12th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Reghan was particularly popular among the Irish nobility and ruling classes, as it was associated with royalty and power. Several Irish clans, such as the O'Neills and the O'Donnells, had members who bore this name.
In the 16th century, the name Reghan gained some prominence outside of Ireland due to the work of the renowned Irish scholar and historian, Reghan O'Mulconry. O'Mulconry was one of the leading figures in preserving and documenting Irish history and literature during the tumultuous period of the Tudor conquest of Ireland.
Another notable figure who bore the name Reghan was Reghan Ó Buadhaigh, an Irish Franciscan friar who lived in the 17th century. Ó Buadhaigh was renowned for his scholarship and contributions to the study of Irish language and literature.
In the 19th century, the name Reghan was revived and gained renewed popularity among Irish families, particularly those with strong ties to their cultural heritage. One of the most famous bearers of this name during this period was Reghan O'Rourke, an Irish revolutionary who participated in the Easter Rising of 1916 and later served as a member of the Irish Parliament.
While the name Reghan has its roots firmly planted in Irish culture and history, it has since gained recognition and usage in other parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries with significant Irish diaspora populations.
People
Reghan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reghan 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
Reghan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reghan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 880 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reghan 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 389,494 US residents.
Is Reghan a common name?
We classify Reghan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 895 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reghan most popular?
The single biggest year for Reghan was 2005, when 54 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reghan is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reghan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 876 people with the name Reghan, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,689 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 Reghan 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 Reghan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reghan leans strongly female. 863 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 17 male bearers (1.9%). 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 Reghan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reghan is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (7.5%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Reghan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reghan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (736 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 Reghan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reghan a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Reghan 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 Reghan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reghan 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 Reghan 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 Americans are named Reghan?
See how many Americans are named Reghan on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.