Dashawn
A masculine name with a blend of French and English origins, meaning "gift sent from Heaven".
Name Census estimates that about 9,155 living Americans carry the first name Dashawn. It is a predominantly male name (94.2% of registrations). The average person named Dashawn today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dashawn births was 1994 (401 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dashawn. 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 Dashawn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
9.2K
~ 1 in 37,439 Americans
Peak year
1994
401 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,560
Tracked since 1968
Census
Dashawn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,109 people with the first name Dashawn, which placed it at #3,418 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
#3,418
National first-name rank
People counted
6.1K
6,109 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dashawn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dashawn is Black at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.6%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Dashawn 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 Dashawn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.0% · 5,130
- Two or more races8.6% · 528
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 276
- White2.0% · 122
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Dashawn
Dashawn leans heavily male at 94.2% of total registrations, but 541 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dashawn as a male name
- Ranked #2,560 in 2024
- 52 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (373 births)
Dashawn as a female name
- Ranked #18,319 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1995 (30 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dashawn leans strongly male. 5,759 people counted with this name were male (94.2%), compared with 353 female bearers (5.8%).
Popularity
Dashawn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dashawn from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 3,346 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
Dashawn 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 Dashawn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dashawns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. New York, Ohio, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Dashawn, while Colorado, Arkansas, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 220 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dashawn
The name Dashawn is a relatively modern variation of the traditional name Shawn, which has its roots in the Irish name Séan or Seán. This name can be traced back to the late 18th century and is believed to be derived from the old Irish name Seán, which itself is a Gaelic form of the name John.
The prefix "Da" is likely a modern addition, possibly influenced by African-American naming traditions that often incorporate prefixes or other modifications to more traditional names. The name Dashawn gained popularity in the United States, particularly among African-American communities, in the late 20th century.
While the name Dashawn does not have a long historical lineage, the name Shawn has been recorded throughout history. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Seán Ó Neachtain, an Irish historian and poet who lived in the 17th century (c. 1650-1728).
Another notable figure with the name Shawn was Shawn Fanning, the American computer programmer and entrepreneur who created the peer-to-peer file-sharing application Napster in 1999. He was born in 1981 and played a significant role in the early development of digital music distribution.
In the world of sports, Shawn Kemp was a prominent basketball player who played in the NBA from 1989 to 2003. He was born in 1969 and is best known for his time with the Seattle SuperSonics, where he was a six-time NBA All-Star.
Shawn Colvin, born in 1956, is an American singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner. She gained widespread acclaim for her 1997 album "A Few Small Repairs" and has been a influential figure in the folk and Americana music genres.
Lastly, Shawn Mendes, born in 1998, is a Canadian singer-songwriter who rose to fame in the mid-2010s with hits like "Stitches" and "Treat You Better." He has won numerous awards and is one of the most successful and recognizable young musicians of his generation.
While the name Dashawn itself does not have a long historical record, it is a modern variation of the more traditional name Shawn, which has roots in Irish and Gaelic culture and has been borne by notable figures throughout history.
People
Dashawn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dashawn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dashawn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dashawn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,155 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dashawn 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 37,439 US residents.
Is Dashawn a common name?
We classify Dashawn as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,366 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dashawn most popular?
The single biggest year for Dashawn was 1994, when 401 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dashawn 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 Dashawn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,109 people with the name Dashawn, or 2.02 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,418 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 Dashawn 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 Dashawn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dashawn leans strongly male. 5,759 people counted with this name were male (94.2%), compared with 353 female bearers (5.8%). 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 Dashawn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dashawn is Black at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.6%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Dashawn most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Dashawn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (5,130 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 Dashawn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dashawn a male name?
Yes, 94.2% of people registered as Dashawn in the SSA data are male. 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 Dashawn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dashawn 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 Dashawn 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 named Dashawn?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.