Shaun
Masculine · “God has been gracious”
Shaun is given to both — 70,481 boys and 3,129 girls since 1880. See Shaun as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Shaun is the spelling Britain and Ireland use and Shawn is the one America settled on, for the same Irish name said the same way. Both are attempts at writing down a word whose own spelling gives an English reader no help at all.
How old is the name Shaun?
Shaun first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Shaun alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 65,500 people named Shaun are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shaun most popular?
Shaun peaked in 1978, reaching #52 nationally. Today it ranks #1942, 1,890 places below that high. See the whole 1978 chart.
Shaun appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Jehan to Shaun
The story of Shaun
The American peak has a very clear cause. A teen idol of the late nineteen-seventies, a singer and television actor with this exact spelling, was on magazine covers and at the top of the charts for a couple of years; the name reached its highest point in the American record within a year of that. Before him the spelling was in use but modest, and Shawn — the fully anglicized version, with the w that English uses for that sound — was well ahead of it. Afterwards, for a decade, they ran level. It is one of the tidier examples of a single person moving a spelling rather than a name.
Meaning
God has been gracious
The Irish Sean is the Irish form of John, and carries John's meaning unchanged through Norman French. None of the English spellings alters it.
How the name formed
- Jehan
- Sean
- Shaun
Related forms: Sean · John · Seathan
Pronouncing Shaun
SHAWN
One syllable, rhyming with lawn. Shane, the northern Irish pronunciation of the same name, rhymes with rain instead.
Nicknames for Shaun
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
- 1935
- Most boys named
- 19794,736 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #52reached in 1978
- Change vs 2023
- −34.2%79 in 2025, from 120
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.
Shaun in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sean in Irish — same name
- John in English — related form
- Seathan in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Shauns among us
people named Shaun are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 21,621 born in 2025 was named Shaun
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Philip test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shaun's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Philip climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Philip's path sketches the road Shaun is walking now.
Shaun 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 Shaun is headed
Shaun is easing off slowly — about 18% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Shaun beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shaun in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, five letters, and no possible mispronunciation.
- It is a genuine Irish name rather than an American invention.
- It is recognized across Britain, Ireland, Australia and North America.
- It works well in front of long surnames, where fuller names get crowded.
- Shawn, Sean and Shaun are three spellings of one name and all will be written for you.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
- It is strongly associated with the nineteen-seventies and eighties in America.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Shaun
Masculine · #1942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shauns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 65,500 people named Shaun are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shaun in 2025?
- Shaun ranks #1942 among US boy names in 2025, with 79 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shaun?
- About 1 in every 21,621 US boys born in 2025 was named Shaun — 79 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shaun with classmates?
- Shaun will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shaun
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Whit#1942 · Bowden#1942 · Justus#1942 · Maverik#1942 · Journey#1942 · Shulem#1942 · Jasir#1942 · Jahkari#1942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shaun? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shaun and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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