Humanverse

Shawna vs Shawnda

American parents have registered 45,640 Shawnas since 1880, against 2,538 Shawndas. Shawna is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shawna Shawnda

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

Shawna has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1941 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1973, when Shawna had 1,411 and Shawnda had 138.

Side by side

  Shawna Shawnda
Total US births 45,6402,538
Most in one year 2,090154
Babies in 2025 9under 5
Estimated living today 43,0002,400
Median age today 4549
Peak year 19771975
Best rank 139th girls868th girls
Rank in 2025 10,107thunranked
First recorded 19411957
Girls / boys 45,531 / 1092,538 / 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 Shawndas alive today are over 49; half the Shawnas are over 45. That is 4 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: Shawna and Shawnda.