Rylan
- Pronunciation
- [Ry-lan]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Island Meadow.
- Origin
- Irish
About the Name Rylan
Rylan is a modern English variant of Ryan (see separate entry on Ryan for the Irish Ó Riain etymology meaning "little king") with the addition of the popular -lan ending. The name appears in SSA records starting in the 1990s and is essentially a 20th-21st century American invention.
The name belongs to the broader contemporary American category of names with the popular Ry- prefix and -lan/-lyn ending — alongside Ryland, Ryleigh, and Rylee. The cluster represents one of the more visible 21st-century boys'-naming trend events. Rylan specifically appeals to parents seeking a more visually distinctive form than the simpler Ryan.
Rylan's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. The name has been used predominantly for boys but has occasional girls' usage. Notable bearers include British TV personality Rylan Clark-Neal (born 1988, the British X Factor and Big Brother star), American actor Rylan Wilder, and various contemporary athletes. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the popular two-syllable -lan ending, the underlying Irish-American register from the Ryan root, and the modern visual presence. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal versatility across casual and formal registers. Common nicknames Ry (the dominant short form), Rylie, and the rare Lan each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Ryland (with the D), Rylin, and Ryan (the simpler historical form) have their own SSA tracking. There are no significant international variants since the name is essentially modern American.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Rylan
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Rylan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2011 with 2,766 boys named Rylan (boy rank #146 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #416 for boys (771 US births). That's 270 places below its 2011 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 Rylan 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 Rylan the strongest states are Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #162 | 213 |
| 2 | Alaska | #177 | 28 |
| 3 | Alabama | #181 | 308 |
| 4 | Hawaii | #184 | 31 |
| 5 | South Dakota | #211 | 44 |
| 6 | Delaware | #212 | 23 |
| 7 | North Dakota | #214 | 41 |
| 8 | Montana | #217 | 33 |
| 9 | Louisiana | #218 | 250 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #224 | 229 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #637 | 105 |
| 2 | New York | #615 | 238 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #536 | 84 |
| 4 | Maryland | #494 | 112 |
| 5 | California | #491 | 641 |
| 6 | Utah | #439 | 80 |
| 7 | Arizona | #432 | 166 |
| 8 | Nevada | #432 | 45 |
| 9 | Michigan | #416 | 204 |
| 10 | Idaho | #393 | 51 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Rylan in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Rylan?
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 Rylan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Rylan against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).