Humanverse

Sharyn vs Shawna

American parents have registered 45,640 Shawnas since 1880, against 7,243 Sharyns. Shawna is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Sharyn 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 94 years in which either name was published, Shawna for 70 years and Sharyn for 24 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Sharyn Shawna
Total US births 7,24345,640
Most in one year 9192,090
Babies in 2025 under 59
Estimated living today 5,30043,000
Median age today 7545
Peak year 19471977
Best rank 247th girls139th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked10,107th
First recorded 19311941
Girls / boys 7,243 / 045,531 / 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 Sharyns alive today are over 75; half the Shawnas are over 45. That is 30 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: Sharyn and Shawna.