Logan carries 31,059 cumulative American girls on SSA record and currently sits at rank 391, with a 2017 peak. The chart traces the textbook gender-crossover surname arc: virtually zero girl presence before 2005, sharp climb across the 2010s as American parents began using historically male unisex surnames for daughters, peak in 2017, and a gentle plateau across the early 2020s.
The Scottish Gaelic source
Logan derives from a Scottish surname based on a place name in Ayrshire, Scotland, traced back to the Gaelic lagan meaning "little hollow" or "small valley." The name began life as a Scottish surname tied to specific clan history and entered American naming through generations of Scots-Irish immigration before crossing over to first-name use in the 20th century, initially almost exclusively for boys.
The girl-name adoption is decisively a 2010s phenomenon. The X-Men character Wolverine (whose civilian name is Logan, played by Hugh Jackman across multiple films from 2000-2017) gave the name strong superhero-male visibility, but the gender-crossover momentum overcame the masculine register through the broader unisex-surname trend.
The unisex surname cluster
Logan sits inside the broader 2010s American fashion for unisex Celtic and Anglo-Saxon surname-style girl names: Finley, Quinn, Riley, Hayden, and Rowan all share the same surname-derived gender-neutral register. The cluster reflects a generational preference for girl names that read modern, professional, and slightly androgynous. Browse the broader Scottish Gaelic girl names set, or browse similar names on the falling names list.
The counter-reading
The strongly-male association is the practical issue. Logan is currently far more common as a boy's name than a girl's name in active American use, and the bearer will encounter regular misgendering on paperwork, in unsolicited correspondence, and in administrative contexts. The Wolverine association also remains strong for adults who came of age during the X-Men film era.
The two-syllable LOH-gun rhythm is short and clean, with no obvious shorter forms beyond Lo. The name pairs particularly well with longer feminine middle names that explicitly mark the bearer's gender on documents.
Sibling pairings work across the unisex surname cluster: Logan and Quinn, Logan and Finley, Logan and Hayden, Logan and Riley. Middle names tend distinctly feminine to balance the unisex first: Logan Rose, Logan Grace, Logan Marie, Logan Elizabeth. See related unisex picks on letter L girl names.