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Magan

Girls' name

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Magan has been given to 2,739 babies in the U.S. since 1968. 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 1990, with 181 recorded.

Babies named Magan, 2011

1 in 457,000

Magan over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Magan: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Magan means

Magan is a given name.

The naming story behind Magan

Charlotte M. Yonge’s 1884 History of Christian Names includes the exact spelling Magan in its glossary. The entry labels it masculine and points to printed page(s) 422.

The glossary’s abbreviated description reads: “Nor. Teu. power”. This is the historical author’s wording, including its language abbreviations and any proposed interpretation. It is presented as historical evidence, not as a verified modern translation. Victorian classifications and root explanations can differ from later linguistic research.

For Magan, the current short meaning therefore remains unconfirmed. Establishing its modern etymology requires a current reference that documents the exact form and its relationship to the proposed earlier words.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,739 girls were recorded with the name Magan between 1968 and 2011. Its highest annual count was 181 in 1990; its best national rank was #927 in 1985.

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 Magan?

Magan had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2011, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2011
1 in 457,000
8 of 3,657,935 births
Among girls only
1 in 220,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2011
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
316,937 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Magan sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2011 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 316,937 children born in 2011 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Magan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Magans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Magan was born before 1989 — so the typical Magan is around 36 today.

Median birth year
1989
About 36 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
45.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
63.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,739
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 45.3% of all recorded uses (1,240).

Is Magan 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 1990 (181)
Years since peak
35
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#927
1985

Spellings of Magan

Magan is not the most common spelling — Megan is, with 30.6% against Magan's 0.19%.

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 Magan is used

Across 1910–2025, Magan was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 85,065 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 20,000
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 25,000
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 33,333
  4. 4Mississippi1 in 33,333
  5. 5Tennessee1 in 33,333
  6. 6Texas1 in 33,333
  7. 7Georgia1 in 50,000
  8. 8North Carolina1 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. Magan has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Magan around the world

Where Magan 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
    1997–2004
    #4,598
    in 2004
  • Canada
    1993–2000
    #2,489
    in 2000

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Magan by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#927
1985
Peak year
1990
181 that year
First recorded
1968
Last recorded
2011
All-time count
2,739
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Magan

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

MagdaMagaliMagalyMagenRaganMaggyTeganTeeganKeeganMagdalenKeaganMaggiTeiganTaeganRayganReganRaiganSaganBroganMegganKerriganMagicMagdalynLogan

Names with a curve like Magan

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

LatiaAshleaLakendraKrystinTaneishaMarkitaShaquitaTieshaPorscheEbonieShakiaNiesha

Sibling names for Magan

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 Magan

Top names of 1990, Magan's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1985Girls' names starting with M