Cailean
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Meaning
a young dog in Scottish Gaelic
How popular is Cailean around the world?
In the United States, Cailean is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source. In Scotland, 6 boys named Cailean were registered in 2024, the 478th most common name among boys that year.
Cailean is on the official records of Scotland and England and Wales.
United States
under 5 a year
In the United States, Cailean is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Cailean has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Scotland
1 in 7,600
In Scotland, 6 boys named Cailean were registered in 2024, the 478th most common name among boys that year.
share of that year’s name registrations
Births registered in Scotland; different spellings count separately but accents are merged at source, and any spelling under 3 in total is suppressed. Source: National Records of Scotland, babies' first names
England and Wales
1 in 150,000
In England and Wales, 4 boys named Cailean were born in 2025, ranked 4,275th among boys that year.
The count never rose above 7 in a year, too few to chart.
Birth registrations in England and Wales (not the whole UK); exact spellings are counted separately, and any spelling under 3 in a year is withheld at source. Source: Office for National Statistics, baby names in England and Wales
Canada
last on record 2007
Cailean is not on the 2024 record for Canada, where names under 5 in a year are excluded at source.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
First given names from provincial and territorial vital statistics across Canada; any name-sex-year under 5 is excluded at source, and small Quebec counts carry a randomized adjustment made at source. Shares divide by Statistics Canada’s count of live births for the year; the 2024 count is preliminary. Source: Statistics Canada, first names at birth (table 17-10-0147-01)
Ireland
last on record 2013
Cailean is not on the 2025 record for Ireland, where names under 3 in a year are withheld at source.
The count never rose above 5 in a year, too few to chart.
Exact registered spellings from Irish vital statistics; any name under 3 in a year is withheld at source, and accented spellings (fadas) are recorded reliably only from 2018. Source: Central Statistics Office (Ireland), Irish babies' names
South Australia
last on record 1996
Cailean is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 1 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, New Zealand and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
The Cailean deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Cailean truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Cailean fits with your family’s names and surname.
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