Phelan

Phelan is the 3,397th most common surname in the United States, shared by 10,291 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 29,000.

By the numbers

People: 10,291
Rank: 3,397th
How common: 1 in 29,000
Per 100,000: 3.4

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Faoláin (“descendant of Faolán”), a hypocoristic form of faol (“wolf”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Phelan described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 90.2%
Hispanic or Latino 4.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.0%
Black, not Hispanic 1.3%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Phelan

Mike Phelan (born 1962)English football coach
Brittany Phelan (born 1991)Canadian alpine skier
Terry Phelan (born 1967)Irish footballer
James D. Phelan (1861–1930)American politician, United States Senator

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

Surnames like Phelan

Phelps

Also a first name

Phelan has been given to 649 American babies as a first name since 1949, peaking in 1996. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.