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Dougal

Boys' name

Dane, black-haired foreigner

Dougal has been given to 5 babies in the U.S. since 1916. 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 1916, with 5 recorded.

Babies named Dougal, 1916

1 in 387,000

Dougal over time, 1880–2025

Boys
024618801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Dougal: meaning, origin, and history

Dane, black-haired foreigner

Scottish Gaelic

What Dougal means

Dougal means “Dane, black-haired foreigner”, associated with dubgall.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Dùghall, from Old Irish dubgall (“Dane, black-haired foreigner”), synchronically from dubh (“black”) + gall (“stranger”).

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

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Dougal is used in English. Its origins include Scottish Gaelic.

Dougal comes through Scottish Gaelic Dùghall and Old Irish dubgall.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Dùghall.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Dougal is pronounced /ˈduːɡl̩/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5 boys were recorded with the name Dougal between 1916 and 1916. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1916; its best national rank was #4,075 in 1916.

How common is Dougal?

Dougal had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1916, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1916
1 in 387,000
5 of 1,934,362 births
Among boys only
1 in 178,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1916
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
268,161 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Dougal 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 1916 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 268,161 children born in 1916 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Dougal. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Dougals were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Dougal was born before 1916 — so the typical Dougal is around 109 today.

Median birth year
1916
About 109 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
100.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (5).

Is Dougal 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 1916 (5)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#4,075
1916

Spellings of Dougal

Dougal is not the most common spelling — Douglas is, with 95.2% against Dougal'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.

Dougal around the world

Where Dougal 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
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1975–2024
    #619
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1961–2009
    #708
    in 2009

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

Dougal by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,075
1916
Peak year
1916
5 that year
First recorded
1916
Last recorded
1916
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Dougal

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

DouglusVergalDougaldDoulgasDougalsNigalDouaRegalDouglesVirgalGalDouglassDougDouglas

Sibling names for Dougal

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 Dougal

Top names of 1916, Dougal's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1916Boys' names starting with D