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Cohen

COE-en
Hebrew
"priest"
Madison Dresler
By Madison Dresler
Updated Thu Mar 20 2025

Cohen Origin and Meaning

The name Cohen is a boy's name of Hebrew, Jewish origin meaning "priest".

Cohen is a common last name among Jews and an important spiritual name in the Jewish religion, associated with the hereditary priests who claimed descent from the biblical Aaron. As a result of its religious significance, Cohen is considered by some to be inappropriate to use as a first name, particularly by people with no Jewish heritage.

Nevertheless, Cohen is becoming increasingly popular in the US as a first name for boys, possibly inspired by the character Seth on TV's The O.C. who was commonly called by his last name, Cohen. It currently ranks among the 300 most popular first names for American baby boys, boosted by its sleek and strong sound and proximity to more popular choices like Logan and Rowan.

Cohen is also found in Ireland as a surname, an unusual variant of Coyne, Cowan or Coen. The Coen spelling is also a Dutch name in its own right, derived from Coenraad (Conrad), although in that case it rhymes with "moon". Spelled as Koen in the US, however, it is probably being used as a variation of Cohen.

Given to more than 1400 babies in 2023, when combined with all its other variations, there were nearly 3000 boys named Cohen-or-similar in the US.

# 247 in the US

Cohen Rank in US Top 1000

# 526 on Nameberry

Cohen Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Popularity of the name Cohen

20 Names Similar to Cohen

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

Famous People Named Cohen

  • Cohen Bramall
    English footballer
  • Cohen Griffith
    Guyanese footballer
  • Cohen Saunders (b. 2009)
    stepson of golfer Sam Palmer Saunders

The name Cohen in Pop Culture

  • Cohen the Barbarian aka Ghenghiz Cohen
    character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels
  • Seth Cohen
    character on "the O.C."

The name Cohen in Nameberry Blog Posts