Shayon
A masculine Indian name meaning "ray of moonlight".
Name Census estimates that about 107 living Americans carry the first name Shayon. It is a predominantly male name (93.6% of registrations). The average person named Shayon today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shayon births was 1998 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shayon. 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 Shayon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
107
~ 1 in 3,203,312 Americans
Peak year
1998
9 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2015 SSA rank
#10,214
Tracked since 1985
Census
Shayon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 198 people with the first name Shayon, which placed it at #38,638 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
#38,638
National first-name rank
People counted
198
198 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shayon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shayon is Black at 51.5%. The next largest groups are White (23.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.2%). 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 Shayon 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 Shayon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.5% · 102
- White23.2% · 46
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.2% · 32
- Two or more races6.6% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Shayon
Shayon leans heavily male at 93.6% of total registrations, but 7 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shayon as a male name
- Ranked #13,735 in 2015
- 5 male births in 2015
- Peak: 1998 (9 births)
Shayon as a female name
- Ranked #10,214 in 1988
- 7 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1988 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shayon on both sides of the split. Of the 204 people counted with this name, 138 were male (67.6%) and 66 were female (32.4%).
Popularity
Shayon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shayon from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 40 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Shayon remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shayon 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 Shayon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shayon
The name Shayon has its roots in the ancient Sanskrit language, which was widely spoken in the Indian subcontinent during the Vedic period, dating back to around 1500-500 BCE. It is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit word "Shayan," which means "one who sleeps" or "one who rests." This could suggest that the name was originally associated with concepts of tranquility, peace, or rest.
In Hindu mythology, there are references to the name Shayon in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. The name appears in the context of describing the sleeping posture of the Hindu deity Lord Vishnu, who is often depicted as resting on the coiled serpent Shesha or the cosmic ocean.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Shayon can be found in ancient Indian texts and inscriptions from the Gupta Empire, which ruled over a significant portion of the Indian subcontinent from the 4th to the 6th century CE. During this period, the name was occasionally used for individuals, albeit not as commonly as some other Sanskrit-derived names.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Shayon:
1. Shayon Ghosh (1836-1922), an Indian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of celestial mechanics.
2. Shayon Mukherjee (1901-1976), a Bengali playwright and novelist who was part of the literary renaissance in Bengal during the early 20th century.
3. Shayon Bhattacharya (1924-2003), an Indian classical singer and exponent of the Patiala gharana, a renowned musical lineage in Hindustani classical music.
4. Shayon Chowdhury (1882-1958), a Bengali lawyer and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Assam, a state in northeastern India, from 1950 to 1957.
5. Shayon Banerjee (born 1967), an Indian classical dancer and choreographer known for her innovative interpretations of traditional Indian dance forms.
While the name Shayon has its origins in ancient Sanskrit and Hindu mythology, it has been adopted and used across various cultures and regions over time, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. Its meaning and associations with rest and tranquility have likely contributed to its enduring appeal as a given name throughout history.
People
Shayon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shayon 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
Shayon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shayon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 107 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shayon 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 3,203,312 US residents.
Is Shayon a common name?
We classify Shayon as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 109 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shayon most popular?
The single biggest year for Shayon was 1998, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shayon is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shayon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 198 people with the name Shayon, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,638 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 Shayon 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 Shayon?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shayon on both sides of the split. Of the 204 people counted with this name, 138 were male (67.6%) and 66 were female (32.4%). 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 Shayon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shayon is Black at 51.5%. The next largest groups are White (23.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.2%). 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 Shayon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shayon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.5% (102 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 Shayon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shayon a male name?
Yes, 93.6% of people registered as Shayon 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 Shayon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shayon 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 Shayon 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 are named Shayon?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.