Duncan

Popularity Trends

The name Duncan is the #1,773 most popular name of all time in the U.S. on a gender-neutral basis, with a total of 20,846 recorded births since 1880. This represents the 77.1% percentile of name popularity (more popular than 77.1% of all names). For boys, it ranks #798 (82.6% percentile) for all time with 20,835 births since 1880. For girls, it ranks #5,705 (0.2% percentile) for all time with 11 births since 1996.

Duncan has appeared in U.S. birth records since the beginning of our dataset in 1880 (since 1880 for boys and since 1996 for girls). Birth data for Duncan is available in 143 out of the 144 years between 1880 and 2023 (143 years for boys and 2 years for girls). The Social Security Administration only reports birth data for years in which the name was given to at least five children of the same gender.

The name Duncan has been given almost exclusively to boys, with 99.9% of all recorded births being male.

For boys, Duncan reached its peak popularity in 1997, achieving the 55.0% percentile (ranked #357) with 322 births per million. The name was most common in 1997, with 322 births per million (ranked 55.0% percentile). Since reaching a low point around 2021, the popularity of this name for boys has been increasing. Currently, Duncan ranks #675 for boys (25.9% percentile) with 133 births per million, which is 41.2% of its peak share of births.

For girls, Duncan reached its peak popularity in 1996, achieving the 0.1% percentile (ranked #858) with 3 births per million. The name was most common in 1996, with 3 births per million (ranked 0.1% percentile). There have been no recorded female births with this name since 2015.

This chart shows the total number of births per million babies in each year for the name "Duncan".

1880 2023 18802023

Key Statistics

Total Births

Peak Births

Peak Year

1996

First Recorded

1996

Peak Percentile

0.1%

Current Percentile

—

Peak Rank

#858

Current Rank

—

Female statistics

Total Births

20,835

Peak Births

644

Peak Year

1997

First Recorded

1880

Peak Percentile

55.0%

Current Percentile

25.9%

Peak Rank

#357

Current Rank

#675

Male statistics

Names with Similar Spellings

These similar-looking names have spellings that are closest to the spelling of "Duncan", in the sense that there are the fewest number of letter differences between the two spellings. These names exclude other spelling variations of this name. View all variations of Duncan.

Names with Correlated Trends

These 12 names have popularity trends that correlate most strongly with the name Duncan's popularity from 1880 to 2023 on a gender-neutral basis. Names may rise and fall in popularity for a variety of reasons, but correlations often reflect either changes in naming fashion or demographic shifts.

The correlation calculations in the table below ignore absolute popularity to show you names that move in similar directions as the name Duncan at the same time. They also correct for changes in the overall birth rate over time. The 0-100% trend values are calculated by dividing each name's gender-neutral births per million by the peak births per million for that name.

The 12 names most strongly correlated to Duncan range from Hanna at 89.8% correlation to Malique at 88.2% correlation, with an average correlation level of 88.8%. The most popular of these 12 most correlated names is Hannah with 458.2K births (100% girls) and the least popular is Alexxis with 1.2K births (100% girls).

Duncan's share of births peaked at 322.4 births per million in 1997 (3.1 for girls in 1996 and 322.4 for boys in 1997). It reached its lowest point of 44.5 births per million (14% of peak) in 1977. In 2023, the most recent period with data, the name Duncan had 132.7 births per million, 41% of its peak popularity.

This chart shows how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak (100%).

Hanna

40.9k

89.79% (very strong)

Hannah

458.2k

89.67% (very strong)

Bailey

129.1k

88.79% (very strong)

Michayla

1,398

88.75% (very strong)

Bayley

2,586

88.72% (very strong)

Micayla

2,597

88.72% (very strong)

Alexxis

1,203

88.71% (very strong)

Mickayla

1,858

88.65% (very strong)

Baily

1,801

88.57% (very strong)

Rayquan

1,215

88.47% (very strong)

Mikayla

56k

88.43% (very strong)

Malique

1,928

88.22% (very strong)

About this table: Correlation values are shown as percentages from 0% to 100%, with each value accompanied by its strength (very weak to very strong). Higher percentages and stronger correlations indicate names that rise and fall together more closely in popularity. The strength labels are color-coded from gray (very weak) to green (very strong). The Trend column visualizes how each name's popularity has changed over time relative to its peak. Absolute correlation values are shown for simplicity (all correlations here are positive). The Total Births column is color-coded by gender distribution - blue shades for predominantly male names and red shades for predominantly female names, with purple hues indicating a more balanced gender distribution.

How to Pronounce Duncan

Our model has identified 3 different pronunciations for the name Duncan. Click the play button under each pronunciation to hear it spoken aloud.

Our model is 42.5% confident that Duncan is pronounced as DUHN-kuhn, which has 2 syllables. The next most likely pronunciation is DUHNGK-uhn, at 42.5% confidence, with 2 syllables.

DUHN-kuhn

42.5%

DUHNGK-uhn

42.5%

DUHNG-kuhn

15.0%

DUHN-kuhn (2 syllables)

42.5% confidence

D AH1 N K AH0 N

DUHNGK-uhn (2 syllables)

42.5% confidence

D AH1 N G K AH0 N

DUHNG-kuhn (2 syllables)

Verified

15.0% confidence

D AH1 NG K AH0 N

Possible Additional Pronunciations

If none of the pronunciations above sound right to you, could you please check whether any of these related pronunciations should be applied to the name Duncan? These are pronunciations that other similar names use, but which are not currently associated with Duncan. If you think any of these are valid pronunciations for Duncan, please vote using the thumbs up button.

About Pronunciation Data

Our confidence scores estimate the likelihood that a particular pronunciation is the most correct for a given name spelling. These scores are derived from pronunciation dictionaries, manual verification, your feedback, and a fine-tuned large language model trained to generate name pronunciations.

For any given spelling, confidence scores across all identified pronunciations sum to 100%. However, these scores don't account for the possibility of valid pronunciations that our model hasn't identified.

The raw pronunciations shown (like D AH1 N K AH0 N) use the ARPAbet phoneme system, a standardized way to represent English speech sounds. Each symbol represents a distinct sound in American English. Visit the ARPAbet Wikipedia page to learn more about these phonetic symbols.

Pronunciation audio is generated by an open source text to speech model that has been customized to adhere to pronunciations provided in ARPAbet format, but sometimes pronunciations that differ subtly will sound identical, particularly if the only difference is the level of emphasis on a syllable or a single vowel sound.

Made with ❤️ by Aaron J Becker

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