Sheyenne
A feminine French name derived from an Algonquian word meaning "flowing".
Name Census estimates that about 1,397 living Americans carry the first name Sheyenne. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sheyenne today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sheyenne births was 1997 (103 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sheyenne. 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
1.4K
~ 1 in 245,350 Americans
Peak year
1997
103 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2018 SSA rank
#13,605
Tracked since 1977
Popularity
Sheyenne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sheyenne from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 709 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sheyenne 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 Sheyenne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sheyennes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Sheyenne, while Washington, New Mexico, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sheyenne
The name Sheyenne has its origins in the Native American Cheyenne tribe, who originally inhabited parts of present-day Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas. The name is a variation of the word "Cheyenne," which means "red people" or "people of a different speech" in the Cheyenne language.
The earliest recorded use of the name Sheyenne can be traced back to the late 17th century, when French explorers and fur traders first encountered the Cheyenne tribe in the Great Plains region. The name was likely adapted from the French spelling of the tribe's name, "Cheyenne," which was later anglicized to "Sheyenne."
In the 19th century, the name Sheyenne gained some popularity among European settlers and traders who had interactions with the Cheyenne tribe. One notable historical figure with this name was Sheyenne River, a fur trader and interpreter who was born in the early 1800s and lived among the Cheyenne tribe for many years.
Another famous bearer of the name was Sheyenne Yazzie, a renowned Navajo artist and weaver who lived from 1920 to 2008. Her intricate weavings, which incorporated traditional Navajo designs and techniques, earned her widespread recognition and numerous awards.
In the realm of literature, the name Sheyenne was used by author Willa Cather in her 1913 novel "O Pioneers!" for one of the characters, a young Native American girl named Sheyenne.
Sheyenne Sanchez, born in 1984, is a contemporary artist and activist from the Pueblo of Isleta tribe in New Mexico. Her work often explores themes of Native American identity, environmental justice, and social issues.
While the name Sheyenne has its roots in Native American culture, it has gained broader appeal and usage in modern times, transcending its original cultural boundaries and becoming a unique and distinctive name in its own right.
People
Sheyenne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sheyenne 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
Sheyenne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sheyenne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,397 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sheyenne 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 245,350 US residents.
Is Sheyenne a common name?
We classify Sheyenne as "Rare". It ranks above 92.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,431 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sheyenne most popular?
The single biggest year for Sheyenne was 1997, when 103 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sheyenne is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sheyenne a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sheyenne 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.
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.