Shawn
A masculine name of Irish origin referring to God being gracious or favored.
Name Census estimates that about 313,831 living Americans carry the first name Shawn. It is a predominantly male name (90.3% of registrations). The average person named Shawn today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shawn births was 1971 (14,688 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shawn. 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 Shawn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Shawn have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
314K
~ 1 in 1,092 Americans
Peak year
1971
14,688 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2024 SSA rank
#638
Tracked since 1931
Census
Shawn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 279,686 people with the first name Shawn, which placed it at #191 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
#191
National first-name rank
People counted
280K
279,686 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
92.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shawn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawn is White at 75.5%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Shawn 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 Shawn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.5% · 211,106
- Black or African American13.2% · 36,838
- Two or more races4.1% · 11,596
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 10,869
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 6,338
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 2,939
Gender
Gender distribution for Shawn
Shawn leans heavily male at 90.3% of total registrations, but 33,040 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shawn as a male name
- Ranked #638 in 2024
- 438 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (12,825 births)
Shawn as a female name
- Ranked #7,513 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (1,971 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shawn leans strongly male. 253,015 people counted with this name were male (90.5%), compared with 26,670 female bearers (9.5%).
Popularity
Shawn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shawn from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 117,156 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
Shawn 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 Shawn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shawns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the most babies named Shawn, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,573 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shawn
The name Shawn has its origins in the Irish language, derived from the Gaelic name Seán or Shawn, which is a variation of the Hebrew name John or Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Shawn gained popularity in English-speaking countries due to the influence of Irish culture and immigration.
The name Shawn can be traced back to the early medieval period in Ireland, where it was a common name among Irish Christians. It is believed to have been introduced to Ireland by early Christian missionaries who brought the name from its Hebrew roots, adapting it to the Irish language and culture.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Shawn can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history, which mentions a "Seán Ua Cearnaigh" in the year 1169. This individual was likely a member of the influential O'Kearney clan in Ireland.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Shawn. One of the most famous was Shawn O'Neill (c. 1530-1567), an Irish chieftain and leader of the O'Neill clan who fought against English rule in Ireland during the 16th century.
Another prominent historical figure with the name Shawn was Shawn O'Byrne (c. 1531-1597), an Irish lord and rebel leader who participated in the Second Desmond Rebellion against English forces in Ireland.
In the literary realm, Shawn Berne (1608-1680) was an Irish poet and writer who composed works in both Irish and English, contributing to the preservation of Irish language and culture during a turbulent period of English colonization.
A more modern example is Shawn Fanning (born 1980), an American computer programmer who created the revolutionary peer-to-peer file-sharing application Napster, which had a significant impact on the music industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Finally, Shawn Mendes (born 1998) is a contemporary Canadian singer-songwriter who has achieved global fame and success in the music industry, particularly known for his hits like "Stitches" and "Treat You Better."
These examples illustrate the rich history and cultural significance of the name Shawn, which has endured through centuries and across various domains, from political and military leaders to literary figures and modern entertainers.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Shawn
People
Shawn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shawn 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
Shawn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shawn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 313,831 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shawn 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 1,092 US residents.
Is Shawn a common name?
We classify Shawn 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, 339,174 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shawn most popular?
The single biggest year for Shawn was 1971, when 14,688 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shawn is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shawn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 279,686 people with the name Shawn, or 92.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #191 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 Shawn 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 Shawn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shawn leans strongly male. 253,015 people counted with this name were male (90.5%), compared with 26,670 female bearers (9.5%). 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 Shawn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawn is White at 75.5%. The next largest groups are Black (13.2%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Shawn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shawn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.5% (211,106 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 Shawn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shawn a male name?
Yes, 90.3% of people registered as Shawn 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 Shawn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shawn 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 Shawn 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 Americans are named Shawn?
See how many people share the name Shawn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.