Name Awesome

Deacon

#561 in 2025Boys' name

King, ruler + hard, brave, through Dicken

Deacon has been given to 11,570 babies in the U.S. since 1971. In 2025 it ranked #561 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2014, with 734 recorded.

Babies named Deacon, 2025

1 in 6,270

Deacon over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Deacon: meaning, origin, and history

King, ruler + hard, brave, through Dicken

English

What Deacon means

Deacon belongs to the name family reached through Deacon → Dicken → Dick → Richard. Its meaning is “king, ruler + hard, brave”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

* English occupational surname for someone working in the household of a deacon. * Also as an English surname, variant of Dicken. * As an Irish surname, from Ó Deocáin, "descendant of Deocán."

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Deacon (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Deacon is used in English. Its origins include English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Dicken, Dick and Richard.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 11,570 boys were recorded with the name Deacon between 1971 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 734 in 2014; its best national rank was #420 in 2014.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #516 in 2020 to #561 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #453 in 2015 to #561 in 2025.

How common is Deacon?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 6,270
529 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 3,230
0.03% of boys
Rank, 2025
#561
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
4,345 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Deacon 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 1002%
School of 5008%

Put another way: gather 4,345 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Deacon. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Deacons were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Deacon was born before 2015 — so the typical Deacon is around 10 today.

Median birth year
2015
About 10 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
47.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
96.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
11,570
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 47.6% of all recorded uses (5,506).

Is Deacon 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
−9
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−45
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−108
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.79×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
72.1%
Peak was 2014 (734)
Years since peak
11
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
11.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#420
2014

Spellings of Deacon

Deacon is not the most common spelling — Dean is, with 41.3% against Deacon's 2.5%.

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 Deacon is used

Across 2016–2025, Deacon was most concentrated in West Virginia — about 1 in 1,087 boys, against 1 in 2,742 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in 33,333).

392 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1West Virginia1 in 1,087
  2. 2Kentucky1 in 1,205
  3. 3Tennessee1 in 1,266
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 1,351
  5. 5Iowa1 in 1,408
  6. 6Kansas1 in 1,408
  7. 7Indiana1 in 1,429
  8. 8Arkansas1 in 1,538

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.

Geographically, Deacon is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 42% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Deacon around the world

Where Deacon 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
    #1,035
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2001–2023
    #614
    in 2023
  • Northern Ireland
    2013–2021
    #433
    in 2021
  • Ireland
    2006–2017
    #710
    in 2017
  • France
    2021–2021
    #4,627
    in 2021
  • Canada
    1995–2024
    #536
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1989–2013
    #754
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Deacon

People whose public names include Deacon, 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.

Deacon by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#561
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 45
Best rank ever
#420
2014
Peak year
2014
734 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
11,570
Count in 2025
529

Names similar to Deacon

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

DeanteDeangeloDeandreDeaneDeaganDeakonDeavonDeanthonyMaconDeaglanDeaireDeariusDeakenDeavenDeanDeaaronFalconDeantaeDeandraDearlDeandraeDeacanDeannaDeakin

Names with a curve like Deacon

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

KasenFinneganCannonArjunSorenNikolaiRayanKianMemphisYusufCaseAlijah

Sibling names for Deacon

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 Deacon

Top names of 2014, Deacon's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2014Boys' names starting with DEnglish Boy NamesEnglish NamesUnique Boy Names