Shianna
Feminine · “people who speak strangely”
Shianna is Cheyenne turned into an Anna name. Change the ch to sh and the ending to -anna, and a Plains people's name becomes something that rhymes with Brianna and Julianna. The original is a Dakota word, and it is not a name the Cheyenne gave themselves — it is what their neighbors called them.
How old is the name Shianna?
Shianna first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Shianna alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 900 people named Shianna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shianna most popular?
Shianna peaked in 1997, reaching #2174 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 12,768 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From Šahíyena to Shianna
The story of Shianna
Cheyenne entered American given names in the later twentieth century, from the people, the Wyoming city and a general fashion for names taken from the West. Once it was common, American spelling did to it what it does to everything: the ch became sh, because that is what the ch actually says; the -enne ending became -anna, because -anna was a productive ending doing steady work in Brianna, Adrianna and Julianna. Shianna is the result of both moves, and the name it produces sounds nothing like a Dakota word and a great deal like its American neighbors.
Meaningscholars disagree
people who speak strangely
The English name Cheyenne comes through French from a Dakota word generally read as red talkers or people of a foreign speech — a description of neighbors whose language the Dakota did not understand. The Cheyenne call themselves something quite different in their own language. That reading is the standard one and it is not fully settled. What is clear is that the name is an outsider's word, which is true of a great many names on an American map.
How the name formed
- Šahíyena
- Cheyenne
- Shianna
Pronouncing Shianna
shy-ANN-uh
shy-ANN-uh, three syllables, stress in the middle. Cheyenne is said shy-ANN in two, so this spelling has added a syllable as well as changed the letters — the -anna ending is an audible change rather than a cosmetic one.
Nicknames for Shianna
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
- 1978
- Most girls named
- 199763 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2174reached in 1997
- Change vs 2019
- 0.0%5 in 2025, from 5
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.
Shiannas among us
people named Shianna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Shianna
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 Jamye test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shianna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jamye climbed just as high around 1976, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jamye's path sketches the road Shianna is walking now.
Shianna 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
Shianna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shianna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Anna is waiting inside it as a short form that needs no explanation anywhere.
- It rhymes with a whole shelf of familiar names, so it sounds settled on first hearing.
- The sh makes the opening explicit, which the ch spelling leaves to convention.
- Cheyenne is the standard spelling and this one will be heard and written as it constantly.
- The name belongs to a Native people, and using it is a choice worth making deliberately.
- Shianna, Shiann, Shyanne and Shianne are all in use, so the spelling gets dictated in full.
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What they receive
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Shianna
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shiannas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Shianna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shianna in 2025?
- Shianna ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shianna?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Shianna — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shianna with classmates?
- Shianna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shianna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Makyah#14942 · Sophya#14942 · Lyllian#14942 · Sarrah#14942 · Mellanie#14942 · Kally#14942 · Dyanna#14942 · Morgann#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shianna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shianna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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