Shawndell
A masculine name potentially originating from Irish Gaelic meaning "descendant of brown-haired one".
Name Census estimates that about 378 living Americans carry the first name Shawndell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 63.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Shawndell today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shawndell births was 1973 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shawndell. 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.
People living today
378
~ 1 in 906,758 Americans
Peak year
1973
29 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2007 SSA rank
#12,128
Tracked since 1967
Census
Shawndell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 360 people with the first name Shawndell, which placed it at #26,062 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
#26,062
National first-name rank
People counted
360
360 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
66.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shawndell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawndell is Black at 66.4%. The next largest groups are White (20.0%) and Two or More Races (8.1%). 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 Shawndell 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 Shawndell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American66.4% · 239
- White20.0% · 72
- Two or more races8.1% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Shawndell
Shawndell is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 404 total registrations, 258 (63.9%) were male and 146 (36.1%) were female.
Shawndell as a male name
- Ranked #12,128 in 2007
- 6 male births in 2007
- Peak: 1978 (15 births)
Shawndell as a female name
- Ranked #15,036 in 1991
- 5 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1973 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shawndell on both sides of the split. Of the 351 people counted with this name, 183 were male (52.1%) and 168 were female (47.9%).
Popularity
Shawndell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shawndell from the 1960s through to the 2000s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 186 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
Shawndell 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 Shawndell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shawndells live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shawndell
The name Shawndell is a modern English name that is thought to have originated as a variant spelling of the Irish name Seánadh, which means "antiquarian" or "historian." The root of the name can be traced back to the Old Irish word "senchaid," meaning "ancient lore" or "tradition."
In the early medieval period, Seánadh was a relatively common name among Irish scholars and scribes who were responsible for preserving and transmitting ancient Celtic traditions and histories. It is possible that the name Shawndell emerged as an anglicized version of this name, reflecting the influence of English culture on Irish naming practices.
While there are no definitive historical records of the name Shawndell itself being used in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the name's connection to the Irish tradition of preserving historical knowledge and cultural heritage is noteworthy.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shawndell can be found in the 17th century, when a man named Shawndell O'Brien was listed as a landowner in County Clare, Ireland, in the Cromwellian settlement records of the 1650s. However, it is likely that the name existed in various spellings before this time.
Throughout history, a few notable individuals have borne the name Shawndell, though it has remained relatively uncommon. These include:
1. Shawndell Blackwell (born 1980), an American professional basketball player who played in the NBA and various international leagues.
2. Shawndell Hendrix (born 1976), an American former professional football player who played as a defensive back in the NFL.
3. Shawndell Terry (born 1987), an American former professional basketball player who played in Europe and Asia.
4. Shawndell Coker (born 1975), an American former professional football player who played as a defensive back in the NFL.
5. Shawndell Williams (born 1982), an American former professional basketball player who played in various international leagues.
While not an extensively documented name throughout history, Shawndell's roots in Irish tradition and its connection to the preservation of knowledge and cultural heritage make it a name with a rich and interesting backstory.
People
Shawndell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shawndell 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
Shawndell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shawndell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 378 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shawndell 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 906,758 US residents.
Is Shawndell a common name?
We classify Shawndell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 404 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shawndell most popular?
The single biggest year for Shawndell was 1973, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shawndell is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shawndell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 360 people with the name Shawndell, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,062 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 Shawndell 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 Shawndell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shawndell on both sides of the split. Of the 351 people counted with this name, 183 were male (52.1%) and 168 were female (47.9%). 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 Shawndell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawndell is Black at 66.4%. The next largest groups are White (20.0%) and Two or More Races (8.1%). 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 Shawndell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shawndell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.4% (239 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 Shawndell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shawndell a male name?
Yes, 63.9% of people registered as Shawndell 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 Shawndell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shawndell 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 Shawndell 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 Shawndell as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.