Given name
Caolan
“a lean man”
Caolan is used as a given name. One Irish interpretation is “a lean man.”
Original IrishCaolán
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Irish interpretation is “a lean man.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Irish.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1989. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Caolan through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 36
- 36 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1998
- 7 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 2023. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Caolan’s family of names
Caolan has a related form in Cailin. Caolan has a related form in Caolen. Caolan has a related form in Caolin.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Caolan
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Caolan, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Colgan
“descendant of Colgán”
>99% boys
Kaelan
“a mighty warrior”
85% boys · 15% girls
Cowan
“from the hollow near the hill; one of twins”
>99% boys
Corgan
Corgan is a surname from Irish.
>99% boys
Conlon
“a hero”
>99% boys
Brosnan
“descendant of Brosnachán”
>99% boys
Cahill
Cahill is a surname from Irish.
>99% boys
Keveen
Keveen is a masculine given name from Old Irish. It is used in Manx.
>99% boys