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Pagan

Girls' name

Rustic, rural

Pagan has been given to 50 babies in the U.S. since 1984. 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 1984, with 10 recorded.

Babies named Pagan, 2022

1 in 677,000

Pagan over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02.557.51018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Pagan: meaning, origin, and history

Rustic, rural

Latin

What Pagan means

Pagan means “rustic, rural”, associated with pāgānus.

Origin, language, and formation

Pagan is used in English. Its origins include Latin.

Pagan comes through Latin pāgānus.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Pagan is pronounced /ˈpeɪɡən/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 50 girls were recorded with the name Pagan between 1984 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 10 in 1984; its best national rank was #6,629 in 1984.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Pagan?

Pagan had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 677,000
5 of 3,385,755 births
Among girls only
1 in 328,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Pagan 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 2022 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 469,366 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Pagan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Pagans were born

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

Median birth year
1989
About 36 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
56.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
44.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
50
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 56.0% of all recorded uses (28).

Is Pagan 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 1984 (10)
Years since peak
41
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#6,629
1984

Spellings of Pagan

Pagan is not the most common spelling — Megan is, with 62.7% against Pagan'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.

Pagan around the world

Where Pagan 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
    1996–2022
    #5,670
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1954–2004
    #700
    in 2004

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

Pagan 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
#6,629
1984
Peak year
1984
10 that year
First recorded
1984
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
50
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Pagan

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

PagetPagieBerganRoganHaganTaganKaganEganDaeganLohganTaiganSaganPagenRheganReiganTieganMarganTeyganPeganKeganCaraganDaganMatiganRhaegan

Sibling names for Pagan

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 Pagan

Top names of 1984, Pagan's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1984Girls' names starting with P