Whelan

11,139 people in the United States were counted with the surname Whelan in the 2020 census, making it the 3,162nd most common in the country. That is about one person in 26,800.

By the numbers

People: 11,139
Rank: 3,162nd
How common: 1 in 26,800
Per 100,000: 3.7

Where the name comes from

Origin Irish

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 Whelan described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 92.0%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 2.9%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.9%
Black, not Hispanic 0.3%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.2%

Notable people called Whelan

Glenn Whelan (born 1984)Irish footballer
Ronnie Whelan (born 1961)Irish footballer and manager
Gemma Whelan (born 1981)English actress
Nicky Whelan (born 1981)Australian actress and model
Billy Whelan (1935–1958)Irish footballer
Arleen Whelan (1914–1993)American actress
Tim Whelan (1893–1957)Film director, writer and producer
Jill Whelan (born 1966)American actress and singer

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

Surnames like Whelan

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.