Shannon
A unisex name of Irish origin meaning "old river".
Name Census estimates that about 317,066 living Americans carry the first name Shannon. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Shannon today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shannon births was 1970 (16,118 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shannon. 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 Shannon with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Shannon have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
317K
~ 1 in 1,081 Americans
Peak year
1970
16,118 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,873
Tracked since 1881
Census
Shannon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 300,974 people with the first name Shannon, which placed it at #171 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
#171
National first-name rank
People counted
301K
300,974 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
99.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shannon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shannon is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Shannon 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 Shannon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.0% · 249,808
- Black or African American8.1% · 24,301
- Two or more races3.7% · 11,184
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 9,314
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 3,588
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2,779
Gender
Gender distribution for Shannon
Shannon leans heavily female at 85.0% of total registrations, but 52,336 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shannon as a male name
- Ranked #2,618 in 2024
- 51 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1972 (3,013 births)
Shannon as a female name
- Ranked #1,873 in 2024
- 107 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (13,547 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shannon leans strongly female. 261,919 people counted with this name were female (87.0%), compared with 39,056 male bearers (13.0%).
Popularity
Shannon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shannon from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 138,446 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shannon 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 Shannon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shannons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Shannon, while Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,691 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shannon
The given name Shannon is an Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Sionainn, which means "old river" or "ancient river." It is derived from the old Irish Gaelic word "sean," meaning "old" or "ancient," and "abhainn," meaning "river." The name is closely associated with the River Shannon, the longest river in Ireland, which flows through the central plains of the country.
The name Shannon has its roots in ancient Celtic tradition and culture. It is believed to have been used as a personal name in Ireland as early as the 7th century, with some historians suggesting that it may have been used even earlier. The River Shannon itself has been an important waterway and a significant part of Irish history and mythology for centuries.
In Irish mythology, the River Shannon is personified as a goddess or a female spirit, often depicted as a beautiful woman with long flowing hair. This association with the river and its symbolic significance in Irish folklore may have contributed to the popularity of the name Shannon among the Irish people.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shannon can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient Irish chronicle dating back to the 15th century. In this text, a woman named Shannon is mentioned as having lived in the 7th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Shannon. One of the earliest was Shannon O'Toole (c. 1300-1370), an Irish chieftain and lord of Leix, who played a significant role in the resistance against English rule in Ireland during the 14th century.
Another prominent figure was Shannon Briggs (1677-1734), an Irish-born author and playwright who lived and worked in London during the early 18th century. His works, including the play "The Provoked Husband," were popular in their time and helped to establish him as a notable literary figure.
In more recent times, Shannon Lucid (born 1943) is an American biochemist and former NASA astronaut who held the record for the longest duration stay in space by an American woman, spending 188 days aboard the Mir space station in 1996.
Shannon Miller (born 1977) is an American former artistic gymnast and Olympic gold medalist, widely regarded as one of the most accomplished gymnasts in U.S. history. She won a total of seven Olympic medals, including two golds, at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.
Shannon Sharpe (born 1968) is a former American football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens. He is considered one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
While the name Shannon has gained popularity in recent decades, particularly in English-speaking countries, its origins can be traced back to ancient Irish Gaelic culture and mythology, reflecting the significance of the River Shannon in Irish history and folklore.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Shannon
People
Shannon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shannon as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shannon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shannon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 317,066 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shannon 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 1,081 US residents.
Is Shannon a common name?
We classify Shannon as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 348,046 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shannon most popular?
The single biggest year for Shannon was 1970, when 16,118 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shannon is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shannon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 300,974 people with the name Shannon, or 99.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #171 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 Shannon 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 Shannon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shannon leans strongly female. 261,919 people counted with this name were female (87.0%), compared with 39,056 male bearers (13.0%). 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 Shannon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shannon is White at 83.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Shannon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shannon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.0% (249,808 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 Shannon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shannon a female name?
Yes, 85.0% of people registered as Shannon in the SSA data are female. 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 Shannon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shannon 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 Shannon 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 share the name Shannon?
You can see how many people share the name Shannon on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.