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Quinn

Irish
"descendant of Conn, chief leader, intelligence"
Sophie Kihm
By Sophie Kihm
Updated Sat Apr 12 2025

Quinn Origin and Meaning

The name Quinn is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "descendant of Conn, chief leader, intelligence".

Quinn is one of the first popular Irish unisex surnames, a strong and attractive choice on the rise for girls but still popular for boys. Quinn was used for about 3000 baby girls and 700 boys in the US last year.

Quinn is the Anglicized version of the Irish patronymic surname Ó Cuinn, meaning "descendent of Conn." Conn has two possible derivations—the Old Irish cond, meaning "intellect," or cenn, meaning "chief." One of the most notable Quinn clans was from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

Quinn started taking off for girls in the mid-nineties, possibly influenced by the popular show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Since then, there have been female Quinns on the animated MTV show Daria, on Zoey 101, and—most prominently—on Glee, featuring cute blond cheerleader character Quinn Fabray.

Some other, more unusual names with the Q-factor: Quincy, Quintina, Quintana, Quinta, Quilla--and, on a different note, Queenie.

# 85 in the US

Quinn Rank in US Top 1000

# 79 on Nameberry

Quinn Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Popularity of the name Quinn

20 Names Similar to Quinn

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Quinn.

Famous People Named Quinn

  • Quinn Louise Cummings
    American actress
  • Quinn Norton
    American journalist, photographer and blogger
  • Quinn Shephard
    American actress
  • Quinn Kay Culkin
    sister of American actor Macaulay Culkin
  • Quinn Patricia Biggio
    daughter of baseball player Craig Biggio
  • Quinn Elsa Darby (b. 2005)
    daughter of footballer Steve Darby
  • (Frances) Quinn Hunter (b. 2008)
    daughter of politician John Edwards and Rielle Hunter
  • Quinn Ann Kenney (b. 2010)
    daughter of pro wrestler Simon Diamond
  • Quinn Elle Bradley (b. 2014)
    daughter of soccer player Michael Bradley
  • Quinn Palmer Every (b. 2014)
    daughter of golfer Matt Every
  • Quinn Murphy (b. 2015)
    daughter of baseball player Daniel Murphy
  • Quinn Lily Wolfeld
    Gosk (b. 2015), daughter of TV journalists Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gosk
  • Quinn Sophie Arnold (b. 2015)
    daughter of actor Tom Arnold

The name Quinn in Pop Culture

  • (Lucy) Quinn Fabray
    character on Fox's "Glee"
  • Quinn Alexandra James Evans
    character on The CW's "One Tree Hill"
  • Quinn Pensky
    character on Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101"
  • Quinn Morgendorffer
    sister of Daria on MTV's "Daria"
  • Quinn Garvey
    minor character on "How I Met Your Mother"
  • Quinn Fuller
    character on CBS' "The Bold and the Beautiful"
  • Quinn Perkins
    character on ABC's "Scandal"
  • Quinn
    orphan character in the movie "Santa Paws"
  • Harley Quinn
    character in the Batman series

The name Quinn in Nameberry Blog Posts