Challen
UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Challen has been given to 76 babies in the U.S. since 1990. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1992, with 11 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 93% boys, 7% girls all-time.
Babies named Challen, 2009
1 in 546,000
Challen over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Challen over time
In 2009, Challen went to 0% girls and 100% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Challen?
Challen had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2009, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2009
- 1 in 546,000
- 7 of 3,820,315 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 283,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2009
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 378,293 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Challen sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2009 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 378,293 children born in 2009 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Challen. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Challens were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Challen was born before 1994 — so the typical Challen is around 31 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1990s
- 76.1% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 100.0%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 71
- People you could plausibly meet
1990s — 76.1% of all recorded uses (54).
Is Challen 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
- —
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- New entry
- Not ranked then
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not ranked then
- Births vs 10 years ago
- —
- Not published both years
- Share of its own peak
- 0%
- Peak was 1992 (11)
- Years since peak
- 33
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 28.5% average annual change
Spellings of Challen
Challen is not the most common spelling — Charles is, with 87.4% against Challen's <0.01%.
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.
Challen around the world
Where Challen 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.
- South Australia1981–1981#616in 1981
Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Challen by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Challen
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Challen
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.