Humanverse

Shastelyn vs Shawn

American parents have registered 339,597 Shawns since 1880, against 35 Shastelyns. Shawn is still ahead, with 412 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shastelyn 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 2009, when Shastelyn had 35 and Shawn had 1,840.

Side by side

  Shastelyn Shawn
Total US births 35339,597
Most in one year 3514,688
Babies in 2025 under 5412
Estimated living today 40310,000
Median age today 1647
Peak year 20091971
Best rank 4,269th girls28th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked681st
First recorded 20091931
Girls / boys 35 / 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 Shastelyns are over 16. That is 31 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: Shastelyn and Shawn.