Cheyenne
A Native American feminine name derived from one of the Plains Indian tribes.
Name Census estimates that about 71,281 living Americans carry the first name Cheyenne. It is a predominantly female name (96.3% of registrations). The average person named Cheyenne today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cheyenne births was 1996 (4,975 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cheyenne. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cheyenne with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cheyenne is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,696 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
71K
~ 1 in 4,808 Americans
Peak year
1996
4,975 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#867
Tracked since 1946
Census
Cheyenne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 59,826 people with the first name Cheyenne, which placed it at #805 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#805
National first-name rank
People counted
60K
59,826 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
19.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cheyenne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cheyenne is White at 68.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.3%) and Hispanic (9.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cheyenne described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cheyenne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.3% · 40,839
- Two or more races9.3% · 5,549
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 5,481
- Black or African American8.9% · 5,295
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.2% · 1,934
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 728
Gender
Gender distribution for Cheyenne
Cheyenne leans heavily female at 96.3% of total registrations, but 2,696 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cheyenne as a male name
- Ranked #10,053 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (122 births)
Cheyenne as a female name
- Ranked #867 in 2024
- 310 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (4,866 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cheyenne leans strongly female. 57,889 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 1,942 male bearers (3.2%).
Popularity
Cheyenne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cheyenne from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 32,755 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cheyenne by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cheyenne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cheyennes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Cheyenne, while District of Columbia, Wyoming, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,355 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cheyenne
The name Cheyenne originates from the Algonquian language spoken by Native American tribes, particularly the Cheyenne people. It is believed to have emerged in the 17th or 18th century, during the time when French and other European explorers first encountered and documented these Indigenous groups.
The word "Cheyenne" is derived from the Sioux word "Shai-ena," which translates to "people of a different language" or "foreigners." This name was given to the Cheyenne tribe by their Sioux neighbors, reflecting the linguistic and cultural differences between the two groups.
Historically, the Cheyenne people were nomadic and inhabited regions across present-day Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. They were known for their skilled horsemanship, warrior traditions, and their role in the conflicts with the United States government during the westward expansion of the 19th century.
While the name Cheyenne does not have a direct connection to ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been documented in various historical records and accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, including the journals of explorers, military reports, and treaties between the Cheyenne tribe and the U.S. government.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Cheyenne was in the 1820s, when the famous mountain man and trapper, James Beckwourth (1798-1868), lived and traded with the Cheyenne people. Another notable figure was Black Kettle (c. 1803-1868), a prominent Cheyenne chief who advocated for peace with the United States government.
In more recent history, Cheyenne has been used as a given name for both males and females. Some notable individuals with this name include Cheyenne Jackson (born 1975), an American actor and singer; Cheyenne Woods (born 1990), an American professional golfer and niece of Tiger Woods; and Cheyenne Brando (1970-1995), the daughter of actor Marlon Brando.
Additionally, the name Cheyenne has been used in popular culture, such as the 1960s television series "Cheyenne," which featured Clint Walker as the lead character, and the 1988 film "Cheyenne Warrior," starring Kelly Preston and Shareen Mitchell.
People
Cheyenne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cheyenne as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cheyenne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cheyenne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 71,281 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cheyenne going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,808 US residents.
Is Cheyenne a common name?
We classify Cheyenne as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 73,135 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cheyenne most popular?
The single biggest year for Cheyenne was 1996, when 4,975 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cheyenne is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cheyenne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 59,826 people with the name Cheyenne, or 19.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #805 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cheyenne in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cheyenne?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cheyenne leans strongly female. 57,889 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 1,942 male bearers (3.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cheyenne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cheyenne is White at 68.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.3%) and Hispanic (9.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cheyenne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cheyenne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.3% (40,839 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cheyenne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cheyenne a female name?
Yes, 96.3% of people registered as Cheyenne in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cheyenne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cheyenne in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cheyenne can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Cheyenne?
See how many people share the name Cheyenne on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.