Humanverse

Shawna vs Shawnta

American parents have registered 45,640 Shawnas since 1880, against 1,930 Shawntas. Shawna is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shawna Shawnta

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 1978, when Shawna had 1,710 and Shawnta had 147.

Side by side

  Shawna Shawnta
Total US births 45,6401,930
Most in one year 2,090147
Babies in 2025 9under 5
Estimated living today 43,0001,900
Median age today 4543
Peak year 19771977
Best rank 139th girls1,016th girls
Rank in 2025 10,107thunranked
First recorded 19411965
Girls / boys 45,531 / 1091,812 / 118

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 Shawnas alive today are over 45; half the Shawntas are over 43. That is 2 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 Shawnta.