Name Awesome

Keegan

#621 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

Son of Aodhagán, a diminutive of Aodh meaning fire

Keegan has been given to 42,324 babies in the U.S. since 1965. In 2025 it ranked #621 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2007, with 1,707 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 91% boys, 9% girls all-time.

Babies named Keegan, 2025

1 in 7,380

Keegan over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05001K1.5K2K18801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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

In 2025, Keegan went to 10% girls and 90% boys.

19652025

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.

Keegan: meaning, origin, and history

Son of Aodhagán, a diminutive of Aodh meaning fire

Irish surname transferred to given-name use

About Keegan

Keegan is an Irish surname name whose roots lead back to Aodh, meaning fire. Its familiar modern sound hides a longer Gaelic family-name history. Actor and comedian Keegan-Michael Key and golfer Keegan Bradley give the spelling prominent associations in television comedy and professional sport.

Irish surname roots

Keegan comes from the Irish surname Mac Aodhagáin. The Mac element means son, while Aodhagán is a double diminutive of the older personal name Aodh.

Aodh developed from Old Irish Áed, meaning fire. Keegan therefore carries that older name through a surname rather than functioning as the ordinary Irish word for fire.

Aodh was widely used in early Ireland and appears in the names of kings and mythological figures. The familiar modern Keegan belongs to this much older network of personal names and family names.

Kegan is a close spelling variant. Aodh and Aodhán are related older forms, although they differ considerably from Keegan in both appearance and pronunciation.

Keegan-Michael Key

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele worked together on MADtv before developing their own sketch-comedy series. Key & Peele began in 2012 and ran for five seasons.

The series won the 2016 Emmy for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. Key received the award as an executive producer, alongside his work performing and writing for the show.

His earlier MADtv work included recurring characters and celebrity impressions. That background makes the later series part of a sustained career in sketch performance rather than an isolated television success.

Key's hyphenated professional first name keeps Keegan especially visible, pairing it with Michael while preserving the surname-style opening.

Keegan Bradley

Keegan Bradley won the 2011 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club in his first appearance in a major championship.

His victory followed a difficult late stretch and a rally against Jason Dufner. Bradley had trailed by five strokes with only three holes left before recovering and eventually winning.

The result made him one of the few golfers to win a major at their first attempt. It gives Keegan a sporting association with a particularly memorable introduction to championship golf.

Key and Bradley carry the spelling into different professional worlds: television performance and production in one case, and individual tournament competition in the other.

Pronunciation

Keegan is KEE-gun in English, with two syllables and initial stress. The first vowel rhymes with “see,” while the second is unstressed.

The double e makes the long opening vowel clear. Kegan keeps the same name family with a shorter written form.

American popularity

Keegan's largest American boys' count and best rank came in 2007, with 1,707 births and number 222. There had been 1,080 births in 2000.

In 2025, 449 boys received the name, ranking 621. Girls have also received the spelling in smaller numbers, including forty-eight in 2025. Both series place their largest annual counts in 2007, with 181 girls that year.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning and history 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. Existing Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA. Informal shortening suggestions are identified in the prose.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How popular is Keegan?

In 2025, Keegan ranked #621 among boys in the United States, with 449 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1965; its largest annual count was 1,707 in 2007. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.

How common is Keegan?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 7,380
449 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 3,800
0.03% of boys
Rank, 2025
#621
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
5,119 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Keegan 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 1001%
School of 5007%

Put another way: gather 5,119 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Keegan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Keegans were born

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

Median birth year
2007
About 18 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
36.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
74.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
38,519
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 36.5% of all recorded uses (14,057).

Is Keegan 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
−28
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−125
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−347
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.33×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
26.3%
Peak was 2007 (1,707)
Years since peak
18
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
9.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#222
2007

Spellings of Keegan

Keegan is the most-used spelling, taking 23.9% of the 161,464 babies given a near-identical spelling.

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 Keegan is used — boys

Across 2016–2025, Keegan was most concentrated in West Virginia — about 1 in 758 boys, against 1 in 2,207 across all states with data. It was least common in Hawaii (1 in 7,143).

14132 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1West Virginia1 in 758
  2. 2New Hampshire1 in 833
  3. 3Iowa1 in 1,087
  4. 4Mississippi1 in 1,087
  5. 5Kentucky1 in 1,149
  6. 6Indiana1 in 1,163
  7. 7Maine1 in 1,190
  8. 8Ohio1 in 1,205

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

Where Keegan is used — girls

Across 2016–2025, Keegan was most concentrated in Ohio — about 1 in 12,500 girls, against 1 in 40,551 across all states with data. It was least common in Florida (1 in 100,000).

18 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Ohio1 in 12,500
  2. 2North Carolina1 in 25,000
  3. 3Texas1 in 25,000
  4. 4Colorado1 in 50,000
  5. 5Georgia1 in 50,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 50,000
  7. 7Maryland1 in 50,000
  8. 8New York1 in 50,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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.

Keegan around the world

Where Keegan 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
    #953
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1997–2025
    #495
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2005–2024
    #305
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    2007–2025
    #348
    in 2025
  • France
    2000–2022
    #4,028
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #831
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1975–2013
    #389
    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 Keegan

People whose public names include Keegan, 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.

Keegan by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#621
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 125
Best rank ever
#222
2007
Peak year
2007
1,707 that year
First recorded
1965
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
38,519
Count in 2025
449

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,275
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 793
Best rank ever
#1,348
2007
Peak year
2007
181 that year
First recorded
1976
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,805
Count in 2025
48

Names similar to Keegan

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

KeenanMorganKeelanKeaganReaganTeaganBroganDeeganKeetonFinneganKeganLoganReganTeeganKeelinTeganKeenenRoganDeaganKeiganDaeganKeeneHoganKeean

Names with a curve like Keegan

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

DrakeKameronCorbinQuinnKeatonKalebJosueConnerPeytonJaylenKylerBrennan

Sibling names for Keegan

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 Keegan

Top names of 2007, Keegan's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2007Boys' names starting with K