Keagan
- Pronunciation
- [Kea-gan]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- A Thinker: Fiery. Form Of Hugh.
- Origin
- Irish
About the Name Keagan
Keagan is a variant spelling of Keegan, an Irish surname-turned-given-name derived from the Gaelic Mac Aodhagáin, meaning "son of Aodhagán" — a diminutive of Aodh, the ancient Irish name for the god of fire and sun in Celtic mythology. The element Aodh is also the root of the name Hugh in its Irish lineage, which gives Keagan an indirect connection to Hugh despite the seemingly distant surface appearance. The fire-and-sun etymology gives all Keegan-family names a bright, energetic underpinning — an association with radiance and the fiery spirit of Celtic warrior tradition.
In American naming, Keagan belongs to a family of Irish-origin names that flourished particularly from the 1990s onward: Keegan, Regan, Teagan, Deagan, and their various spelling variants all share a similar sonic profile — two syllables, opening consonant cluster, bright vowel, clean ending. The Keagan spelling, with its distinctive ea digraph, is one of several competing orthographic forms alongside Keegan, Keagen, and Kegan. This spelling variety reflects American parents' tendency to customize Irish names to match their own phonetic instincts.
Keagan first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 and peaked in 2008 at #489. It maintained a presence through 2018, sitting at #919 in its final tracked year, accumulating approximately 6,698 top-1000 births across its eighteen-year run. Recorded variants include Kagan and Kegan, with Kegan offering the most streamlined phonetic spelling of the group.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Keagan
US Popularity History (2000–2018)
Annual US births named Keagan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2008 with 564 boys named Keagan (boy rank #489 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2018, ranked #919 for boys (234 US births). That's 430 places below its 2008 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Keagan Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Keagan the strongest states are Arkansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas | #446 | 32 |
| 2 | South Carolina | #555 | 32 |
| 3 | Oklahoma | #634 | 32 |
| 4 | Minnesota | #669 | 22 |
| 5 | Michigan | #692 | 34 |
| 6 | Indiana | #721 | 51 |
| 7 | Wisconsin | #735 | 18 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #759 | 45 |
| 9 | Missouri | #773 | 34 |
| 10 | Louisiana | #806 | 28 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | #943 | 15 |
| 2 | Georgia | #874 | 32 |
| 3 | Ohio | #831 | 60 |
| 4 | Virginia | #816 | 45 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #811 | 41 |
| 6 | Louisiana | #806 | 28 |
| 7 | Missouri | #773 | 34 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #759 | 45 |
| 9 | Wisconsin | #735 | 18 |
| 10 | Indiana | #721 | 51 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Keagan in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Keagan?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Keagan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Keagan against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).