Logan

341,575 people in America carry this name — ranked #147 of 923.

Most Americans carrying it were born this century.

Say it LOH guhn

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

L OW1 G AH0 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 341,575 2020 Census
  • Rank #147 Common

What Logan means and where it comes from

Gaelic in origin, reading literally as “an inclosed plain or low-lying place”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Logan through the years

380,188 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2007, with 16,037 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00s 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2000s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

What goes well after Logan

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Logan Nicholas — runs together
  • Logan Larry — same opening
  • Logan Luis — same opening

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Logan is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Logan used for boys or for girls?

92.8% men
24,537 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where in America Logan is thickest on the ground

In Idaho the name is given 1.6 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Idaho ×1.6
  • Alaska ×1.6
  • Nevada ×1.6
  • Wyoming ×1.6
  • Montana ×1.6

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

The most common full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Names built the same way as Logan

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 2 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

Try it Adult Height

Open Adult Height on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers