Keyshawn
A masculine name of African American origin meaning "He leads".
Name Census estimates that about 3,994 living Americans carry the first name Keyshawn. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Keyshawn today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Keyshawn births was 2000 (430 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Keyshawn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Keyshawn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.0K
~ 1 in 85,817 Americans
Peak year
2000
430 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,068
Tracked since 1983
Census
Keyshawn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,151 people with the first name Keyshawn, which placed it at #5,452 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,452
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,151 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keyshawn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keyshawn is Black at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.1%) and Hispanic (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Keyshawn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Keyshawn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.0% · 2,647
- Two or more races7.1% · 223
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 134
- White2.8% · 87
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 26
Gender
Gender distribution for Keyshawn
Out of the 4,051 babies given the name Keyshawn since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Keyshawn as a male name
- Ranked #3,068 in 2024
- 40 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (430 births)
Keyshawn as a female name
- Ranked #13,547 in 1999
- 6 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1998 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keyshawn leans strongly male. 3,082 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 69 female bearers (2.2%).
Popularity
Keyshawn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Keyshawn from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,341 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Keyshawn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Keyshawn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Keyshawns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. Florida, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Keyshawn, while Oklahoma, Arizona, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 109 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Keyshawn
The name Keyshawn is a modern African-American name that originated in the late 20th century. It is a combination of the English words "key" and "shawn," which means "gift" or "blessing" in English. The name is not derived from any specific language or culture, but rather was created by African-American parents as a unique and meaningful name for their children.
There are no known historical references or ancient texts that mention the name Keyshawn, as it is a relatively new name that emerged in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. The earliest recorded examples of the name date back to the 1970s and 1980s, when it began to gain popularity among African-American families.
One of the most famous people with the name Keyshawn is Keyshawn Johnson, an American former professional football player who played wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) from 1996 to 2006. He was born on July 22, 1972, and played for teams such as the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Dallas Cowboys.
Another notable person named Keyshawn is Keyshawn Whitehorse, a Native American actress and filmmaker from the Navajo Nation. She was born in 1976 and is known for her roles in films such as "Smoke Signals" and "Skins."
Keyshawn Bryant is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA. He was born on May 27, 1999, and played college basketball for the University of South Carolina before being drafted in 2021.
Keyshawn Davis is an American professional boxer who competes in the lightweight division. He was born on January 20, 1999, and represented the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he won a silver medal.
Keyshawn Parnell is a former American football defensive back who played in the NFL from 2004 to 2006. He was born on August 16, 1981, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Keyshawn
People
Keyshawn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Keyshawn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Keyshawn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Keyshawn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,994 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Keyshawn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 85,817 US residents.
Is Keyshawn a common name?
We classify Keyshawn as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,051 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Keyshawn most popular?
The single biggest year for Keyshawn was 2000, when 430 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Keyshawn is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Keyshawn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,151 people with the name Keyshawn, or 1.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,452 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Keyshawn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Keyshawn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Keyshawn leans strongly male. 3,082 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 69 female bearers (2.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Keyshawn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Keyshawn is Black at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.1%) and Hispanic (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Keyshawn most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Keyshawn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (2,647 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Keyshawn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Keyshawn a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Keyshawn in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Keyshawn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Keyshawn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Keyshawn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Keyshawn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.