Humanverse

Iran

About 1,775 American babies have been named Iran since 1921, most of them around 1978. It is given to both boys and girls. In 2025 it ranked 7,194th. About 1,600 Irans are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 30.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Iran boys named Iran

Girls and boys called Iran

Share of the name given to girls, 1880 to 2025 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

years more girls than boys years more boys than girls

Both, throughout, without either side ever taking it over: 416 girls and 1,359 boys in all, and in 2010 the split was 10 to 19.

The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 27 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.

By the numbers

Total US births
1,775
Estimated living today
1,600
Median age today
30
Peak year
1978
Best rank
1,570th
Rank in 2025
7,194th
First recorded
1921
Girls / boys
416 / 1,359

How old the living Irans are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 20 40 60 80 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 1,775 babies given the name since 1921, about 1,600 are alive — 91 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1995 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Notable Irans

People named Iran with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Where Iran is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Iran is most concentrated in California (5.7×), Texas (3.9×), New York (0.9×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1978

The most popular boys’ names the year Iran peaked:

All the names of 1978

Related names

Iran against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Iran with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.