Keyshawn
Masculine · “God is gracious”
Keyshawn is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,059 boys against 24 girls since 1880.
Keyshawn joins a Key- opening to Shawn, and Shawn is the English spelling of Seán — the Irish form of John. Half the name is fifty years old and half of it is two thousand.
How old is the name Keyshawn?
Keyshawn first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Keyshawn alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 4,000 people named Keyshawn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keyshawn most popular?
Keyshawn peaked in 2000, reaching #520 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 3,138 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Keyshawn
Ours, offered as ours. Seán came to America with Irish emigration, was respelled Shawn so English speakers could read it, and by the 1970s was among the country's most-used boys' names. African-American naming then kept the familiar half and built new openings in front — Keyshawn, Deshawn, Rashawn, Tyshawn. The Irish form of a Hebrew name ended up inside an entirely American set, and nobody planned it that way.
Meaningscholars disagree
God is gracious
The Shawn in it is documented: Irish Seán is the Gaelic form of John, from Hebrew Yohanan. Whether Keyshawn was built on that name or assembled from the Key- and -shawn pieces of American naming is not recorded.
Pronouncing Keyshawn
KEE-shawn
Two syllables, first stressed. Some families stress the second, kee-SHAWN.
Nicknames for Keyshawn
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
- 1983
- Most boys named
- 2000430 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #520reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%30 in 2025, from 40
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.
Keyshawn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Seán in Irish — related form
- Shawn in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Illinois, Florida, California.
Keyshawns among us
people named Keyshawn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Keyshawn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Keyshawn
- #3658
- Keyshawn on the 2025 chart
- #891
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Keyshawn went to 30 boys in 2025, but Keishawn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 37, which makes it the 891st most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,767 places above the chart.
- Keyshawn30
- Keishawn7
About 1 boy in 46,164 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 56,936 for Keyshawn itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Brant test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keyshawn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Brant climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Brant's path sketches the road Keyshawn is walking now.
Keyshawn sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Keyshawn is headed
Keyshawn should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Keyshawn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keyshawn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Shawn sits inside it as a complete, entirely ordinary name.
- Read correctly on sight by any English speaker.
- It belongs to a documented American naming tradition rather than standing alone.
- Keyshaun, Keyshon and Keyshawn are all in use and the spelling will be asked for.
- The stress is unsettled between the two syllables.
- There is no documented meaning for the compound, only for its second half.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Keyshawn
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Keyshawns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,000 people named Keyshawn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Keyshawn?
- Keyshawn is the most-used spelling in US records — 30 of the 37 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Keishawn.
- How popular is the name Keyshawn in 2025?
- Keyshawn ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keyshawn?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Keyshawn — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keyshawn with classmates?
- Keyshawn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keyshawn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jimmie#3658 · Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Gustav#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keyshawn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keyshawn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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