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Arlan

#2,392 in 2025Boys' name

Male dog, predator

Arlan has been given to 3,434 babies in the U.S. since 1912. In 2025 it ranked #2,392 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1936, with 87 recorded.

Babies named Arlan, 2025

1 in 58,200

Arlan over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Arlan: meaning, origin, and history

Male dog, predator

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Arlan means

Arlan means “male dog, predator”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,434 boys were recorded with the name Arlan between 1912 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 87 in 1936; its best national rank was #625 in 1936.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,806 in 2020 to #2,392 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,185 in 2015 to #2,392 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Arlan?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 58,200
57 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 30,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,392
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
40,315 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Arlan sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 40,315 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Arlan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Arlans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Arlan was born before 1952 — so the typical Arlan is around 73 today.

Median birth year
1952
About 73 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
17.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,870
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 17.6% of all recorded uses (606).

Is Arlan rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+361
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+414
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,793
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.38×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
65.5%
Peak was 1936 (87)
Years since peak
89
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#625
1936

Spellings of Arlan

Arlan is not the most common spelling — Brian is, with 24.2% against Arlan's 0.07%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Arlan is used

Across 1910–2025, Arlan was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 16,667 boys, against 1 in 106,347 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

06 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 16,667
  2. 2Iowa1 in 20,000
  3. 3North Dakota1 in 20,000
  4. 4Nebraska1 in 33,333
  5. 5Pennsylvania1 in 33,333
  6. 6Wisconsin1 in 33,333
  7. 7South Dakota1 in 50,000
  8. 8Kansas1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Arlan has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Arlan around the world

Where Arlan ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2008–2025
    #1,798
    in 2025
  • France
    1992–2025
    #4,001
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2015–2021
    #2,989
    in 2021
  • South Australia
    1986–2012
    #514
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Arlan

People whose public names include Arlan, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Arlan by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,392
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 414
Best rank ever
#625
1936
Peak year
1936
87 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,434
Count in 2025
57

Names similar to Arlan

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ArleyArlinArlynArlisArlieArlenArlonTylanArlandTalanDilanKelanAslanElanDyllanKeelanIlanMylanKalanAzlanDaylanOlanArlowArliss

Names with a curve like Arlan

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Arlan, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

TexGeroldJereLynwoodGearldFarrellDaroldWindellNancyBarbaraDeltonLindell

Sibling names for Arlan

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Arlan

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