Name Awesome

Cavan

#3,455 in 2025Boys' name

Hollow

Cavan has been given to 1,714 babies in the U.S. since 1969. In 2025 it ranked #3,455 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2008, with 77 recorded.

Babies named Cavan, 2025

1 in 100,000

Cavan over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cavan: meaning, origin, and history

Hollow

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Cavan means

Cavan means “hollow”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,714 boys were recorded with the name Cavan between 1969 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 77 in 2008; its best national rank was #1,770 in 2002.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,738 in 2020 to #3,455 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,773 in 2015 to #3,455 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 Cavan?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 100,000
33 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 51,800
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,455
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
69,634 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cavan 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 69,634 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cavan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cavans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Cavan was born before 2007 — so the typical Cavan is around 18 today.

Median birth year
2007
About 18 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
34.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
70.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,714
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 34.1% of all recorded uses (585).

Is Cavan 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
+761
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+283
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−682
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.77×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
42.9%
Peak was 2008 (77)
Years since peak
17
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,770
2002

Spellings of Cavan

Cavan is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 22.1% against Cavan's 0.10%.

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 Cavan is used

Across 1910–2025, Cavan was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 293,553 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Texas1 in 100,000
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Georgia1 in —
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5Massachusetts1 in —
  6. 6New York1 in —
  7. 7Ohio1 in —
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in —

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. Cavan has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Cavan around the world

Where Cavan 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
    1996–2025
    #2,440
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1993–2016
    #707
    in 2016
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,550
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1990–2000
    #556
    in 2000

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Cavan by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,455
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 283
Best rank ever
#1,770
2002
Peak year
2008
77 that year
First recorded
1969
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,714
Count in 2025
33

Names similar to Cavan

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

CavinNevanRevanYuvanGavanCavenKavanJavanLevanPavanAvanTrevanVivanJevanSylvanSevanStevanAlvanJovanLivanDonivanJeevanKevanYvan

Sibling names for Cavan

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 Cavan

Top names of 2008, Cavan's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2002Boys' names starting with C