Humanverse

Shafter vs Shawna

American parents have registered 45,640 Shawnas since 1880, against 119 Shafters. Shawna is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shafter against Shawna, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shafter Shawna

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 101 years in which either name was published, Shawna for 84 years and Shafter for 17 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Shafter Shawna
Total US births 11945,640
Most in one year 142,090
Babies in 2025 under 59
Estimated living today 543,000
Median age today 8945
Peak year 18981977
Best rank 573rd boys139th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked10,107th
First recorded 18981941
Girls / boys 0 / 11945,531 / 109

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Shafters alive today are over 89; half the Shawnas are over 45. That is 44 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Shafter and Shawna.