Reagan
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- From The King.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Reagan
Reagan is an Irish surname descending from the Gaelic Ó Riagáin, traditionally interpreted as "descendant of Riagán" — Riagán being an Old Irish personal name based on rí (king) plus the diminutive -án, yielding "little king." The Ó Riagáin clan traces to medieval southern Ireland and produced multiple Irish kings of Munster.
The single most influential American bearer is Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), the 40th US president (1981–1989) and former actor whose presidency reshaped American conservative politics. Reagan's two-term presidency, his framing of the Cold War ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"), and his subsequent 10-year decline through Alzheimer's disease made him one of the most-recognized American political figures of the late 20th century. The American transition of Reagan from surname to first name in honor of the president began in the 1980s.
Reagan's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 1985 to the US top 100 girls' rank by 2010 and the top 75 by 2018. Notable contemporary bearers include reality-TV personality Reagan Eve, American actress Reagan Pasternak, and various political-family children. The name has been used predominantly for girls in modern American naming, though it has occasional male use. The appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the surname-style sophistication, the in-built American-presidential register, and the Irish-Gaelic heritage. Three soft syllables, the distinctive opening R, and tonal versatility across formal and casual registers. Common nicknames Reaganne, Rae, Reggie, and the rare Rag each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Reagen, Raegan, and Regan have their own SSA tracking. Direct variants include the original Irish Ó Riagáin, and the related Welsh form Rhŷn (rare).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Reagan
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Reagan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2016 with 3,096 girls named Reagan (girl rank #98 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #248 for girls (1,244 US births). That's 150 places below its 2016 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 Reagan Most Popular?
Average girl-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 girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Reagan the strongest states are Wyoming, Idaho, Virginia.
Strongest girls-name states
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Mexico | #255 | 57 |
| 2 | Louisiana | #233 | 229 |
| 3 | New York | #210 | 762 |
| 4 | Mississippi | #197 | 165 |
| 5 | California | #193 | 1,743 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #174 | 323 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #173 | 432 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #170 | 178 |
| 9 | Nevada | #168 | 150 |
| 10 | Arkansas | #168 | 186 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Reagan in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raegan | Spiritual Strength. | Female | Irish |
Looking for names like Reagan?
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 Reagan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Reagan against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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