Shawn
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Shawn is given to both — 33,055 girls and 306,542 boys since 1880. See Shawn as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Shawn for a daughter is the ordinary American story of a name that crossed: an Irish man's name, respelled phonetically, popular enough for boys that families began using it for girls too.
How old is the name Shawn?
Shawn first appears in US birth records in 1932 — 93 years ago. The typical Shawn alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 30,500 people named Shawn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shawn most popular?
Shawn peaked in 1970, reaching #168 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 7,717 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Shawn
The story of Shawn
Norman French brought Jean to Ireland, where it became Seán. Irish emigration carried the name to America, where English speakers wrote what they heard: Shaun, Shawn, and from the vocative form, Shane. The masculine use rose sharply in mid-century, and feminine use followed in the usual way — first as a variant, then as a name in its own right, peaking for girls in the early 1970s.
Meaning
God is gracious
Through Seán, the Irish form of the French Jean and so of the Latin Johannes, from the Hebrew Yohanan — 'the Lord is gracious'. The English spelling Shawn is a phonetic rendering of the Irish, which its own orthography does not make obvious to English readers.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Johannes
- Seán
- Shawn
Related forms: Seán · Shaun · Sean · Jeanne
Pronouncing Shawn
SHAWN
One syllable. Shawn, Shaun and Sean are all said the same way, though the last spelling is the Irish one and gives English readers no help.
Nicknames for Shawn
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
- 1932
- Most girls named
- 19711,863 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #168reached in 1970
- Change vs 2023
- +62.5%13 in 2025, from 8
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.
Shawn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Seán in Irish — related form
- Shaun in English — spelling variant
- Sean in English — spelling variant
- Jeanne in French — related form
Shawns among us
people named Shawn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Shawn
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 Dixie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shawn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dixie climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dixie's path sketches the road Shawn is walking now.
Shawn 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
Shawn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shawn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It reaches the largest name family in Europe by a genuinely Irish route.
- The spelling is fully phonetic, which Seán is not.
- One syllable that pairs cleanly with almost any surname.
- The name reads as masculine to most English speakers, and the spelling does not change that.
- Three spellings are current and none of them signals sex.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Shawn
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shawns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 30,500 people named Shawn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shawn in 2025?
- Shawn ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shawn?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Shawn — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shawn with classmates?
- Shawn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shawn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shawn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shawn and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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