Humanverse

Shaun vs Shawnette

American parents have registered 73,610 Shauns since 1880, against 750 Shawnettes. Shaun is still ahead, with 79 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shaun against Shawnette, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shaun Shawnette

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

Shaun has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1935 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1976, when Shaun had 668 and Shawnette had 56.

Side by side

  Shaun Shawnette
Total US births 73,610750
Most in one year 6,22156
Babies in 2025 79under 5
Estimated living today 68,000700
Median age today 4351
Peak year 19781976
Best rank 52nd boys1,714th girls
Rank in 2025 1,942ndunranked
First recorded 19351957
Girls / boys 3,129 / 70,481750 / 0

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 Shawnettes alive today are over 51; half the Shauns are over 43. 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: Shaun and Shawnette.