boy's name
Flynn
FLIN
- Origin Irish
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 1
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 15,713
the United States
#827
2025 births
Flynn is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "reddish" or "ruddy," from a surname rather than a personal name. It ranks 118th in Scotland and 227th in England and Wales, and it is rising.
- Flynn is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in 2021, when 430 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 10,558 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1913.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Flynn over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 36 |
| 1920s | 16 |
| 1930s | 28 |
| 1940s | 60 |
| 1950s | 96 |
| 1960s | 138 |
| 1970s | 116 |
| 1980s | 153 |
| 1990s | 229 |
| 2000s | 748 |
| 2010s | 3,271 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,269 |
What Flynn means
Flynn means reddish or ruddy, from the Irish flann. The word describes a red-brown coloring and was applied to hair and complexion alike, so ruddy is closer than red.
Where Flynn comes from
Flynn anglicizes the Irish surname Ó Floinn, descendant of Flann, from flann meaning reddish or blood-red. Flann was a common early Irish personal name — Flann Sinna was a ninth-century High King, and Flann Mainistrech an eleventh-century historian — and the surname formed from it in the usual way. Its use as a given name is a twentieth-century development following the general movement of Irish surnames forward, and it owes a great deal to Errol Flynn, the Tasmanian-born actor whose name became a byword for a particular kind of swashbuckling. More recently Disney's Tangled in 2010 gave the name to its male lead, and our data shows it rising steadily since. It is unrelated to the English word flinch or to flint.
Flynn in use
Flynn ranks 118th in Scotland with 42 births in 2024 and 227th in England and Wales with 218 births, and it is rising in our data with a peak in 2021. Our records carry it from 1913. It holds 827th in the United States and 154th in Northern Ireland, so it has genuine reach across every English-speaking market we hold.
How popular is Flynn?
In 2025, Flynn was given to 314 babies in the United States, ranking #827 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Flynn is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Flynn
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Flynn also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Flynn over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Flynn in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Flinn
Sibling names for Flynn
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Flynn — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Flynn
What does the name Flynn mean?
Flynn means "reddish" or "ruddy," from the Irish flann.
Is Flynn a surname?
Originally yes — Ó Floinn, descendant of Flann. Its use as a given name is twentieth-century.
Did Tangled make Flynn popular?
Our data shows it rising steadily since the 2010 film, which gave the name to its male lead.
How popular is Flynn?
118th in Scotland and 227th in England and Wales.
Is Flynn a girl's or a boy's name?
Flynn is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Flynn?
Flynn has 1 syllable.
Is Flynn a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Flynn currently ranks #118 in the United States. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.