Cheyenne
Masculine
Cheyenne is given to both — 2,696 boys and 70,732 girls since 1880. See Cheyenne as a girl nameSee other names given to both
The Cheyenne call themselves Tsitsistas, which is generally translated as the people. Cheyenne is what their neighbors called them, it reached English through French traders who heard it from the Dakota, and it is the name that ended up on the maps and in the treaties.
How old is the name Cheyenne?
Cheyenne first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Cheyenne alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 2,500 people named Cheyenne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cheyenne most popular?
Cheyenne peaked in 1957, reaching #897 nationally. See the whole 1957 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Cheyenne
The name peaked in America alongside a whole wave of western place names given to daughters — Dakota, Montana, Sierra, Savannah, Cheyenne — in the nineteen-eighties and nineties. That wave has a shape worth noticing: the names are geographic rather than personal, they refer to the American west specifically, and several of them are the names of nations rather than places. What made them attractive was the landscape they suggested. What they carry is more complicated than that, and the Cheyenne nations are here to say so.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The word is not from the Cheyenne language. Its meaning in Dakota is disputed and most readings of it are unflattering, which is a common feature of names given by neighbors.
Pronouncing Cheyenne
shy-AN
Two syllables with the weight at the back. Every spelling of the name is said the same way.
Nicknames for Cheyenne
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1949
- Most boys named
- 1995122 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #897reached in 1957
- Change vs 2023
- +16.7%7 in 2024, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cheyennes among us
people named Cheyenne are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Cheyenne sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Every sound in it is easy for an English speaker and the standard spelling is stable.
- The stress at the back gives it a lift most two-syllable names do not have.
- It is familiar to every American from the map.
- It is a living nation's name, and members of that nation are here to have an opinion about its use.
- The word is not theirs, and its meaning in the language it came from is not friendly.
- It is heavily generation-marked to the nineteen-nineties.
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Cheyenne
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Cheyennes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Cheyenne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cheyenne in 2025?
- Cheyenne is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Cheyenne with classmates?
- Cheyenne will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cheyenne? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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