Duncan
- Pronunciation
- [Dun-can]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Dark Skinned Fighter
- Origin
- Celtic
About the Name Duncan
Duncan is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, Anglicized from Donnchadh — built from the elements donn (dark, brown, or chief) and cath (battle), yielding a meaning of "dark warrior" or "brown-haired fighter." It is one of the oldest Gaelic personal names, carried by two medieval kings of Scotland — most famously the Duncan who was king in Shakespeare's Macbeth — giving the name a literary and historical weight that few Scottish names can match. The Anglicized Duncan has been in continuous use in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora for over a thousand years.
Duncan first appeared in the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 — also its peak year, reaching #447 — and has proven remarkably durable, still charting in 2023 at #930 with 244 births. That twenty-three-year chart life, accumulating 7,160 total top-1000 births, marks Duncan as one of the quieter success stories in this batch: never a mainstream hit, but consistently supported by a loyal following. The 2022 figure of 252 births at #918 confirms the name has held its ground deep into its third decade on the chart.
Duncan's appeal is its unimpeachable authenticity — a name with a thousand years of documented use in Scotland, royal and literary associations, and a strong two-syllable rhythm that wears well from childhood through adulthood. It sits comfortably alongside other Celtic names enjoying quiet popularity in the United States. Recorded variants include Dun, Dune, and Dunn, though the full Duncan remains far and away the preferred form for families drawn to its Scottish heritage.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Duncan
US Popularity History (2000–2023)
Annual US births named Duncan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 530 boys named Duncan (boy rank #447 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2023, ranked #930 for boys (244 US births). That's 483 places below its 2000 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 Duncan 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 Duncan the strongest states are Kansas, Kentucky, Utah.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kansas | #548 | 17 |
| 2 | Kentucky | #554 | 20 |
| 3 | Utah | #561 | 54 |
| 4 | Oregon | #580 | 29 |
| 5 | Minnesota | #600 | 61 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #609 | 27 |
| 7 | Wisconsin | #630 | 37 |
| 8 | Washington | #683 | 84 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #686 | 23 |
| 10 | Illinois | #702 | 114 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #1,055 | 61 |
| 2 | Georgia | #1,051 | 30 |
| 3 | California | #1,019 | 68 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #918 | 58 |
| 5 | Arizona | #879 | 22 |
| 6 | Ohio | #825 | 79 |
| 7 | Virginia | #825 | 61 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #795 | 53 |
| 9 | Michigan | #776 | 73 |
| 10 | Tennessee | #765 | 56 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Duncan in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dunn | Dark Skinned | Male | English |
Looking for names like Duncan?
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 Duncan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Duncan against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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