Humanverse

Shaneika vs Shawn

American parents have registered 339,597 Shawns since 1880, against 549 Shaneikas. Shawn is still ahead, with 412 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shaneika against Shawn, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shaneika Shawn

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

Shawn has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1931 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1988, when Shaneika had 37 and Shawn had 6,087.

Side by side

  Shaneika Shawn
Total US births 549339,597
Most in one year 3714,688
Babies in 2025 under 5412
Estimated living today 530310,000
Median age today 3947
Peak year 19881971
Best rank 2,803rd girls28th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked681st
First recorded 19751931
Girls / boys 549 / 033,055 / 306,542

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 Shawns alive today are over 47; half the Shaneikas are over 39. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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