Rashawn
A masculine name of possible African American origin meaning "courageous ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 6,864 living Americans carry the first name Rashawn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 90.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Rashawn today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rashawn births was 1993 (273 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rashawn. 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 Rashawn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.9K
~ 1 in 49,935 Americans
Peak year
1993
273 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,078
Tracked since 1966
Census
Rashawn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,849 people with the first name Rashawn, which placed it at #4,007 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
#4,007
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,849 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
86.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rashawn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rashawn is Black at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.0%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Rashawn 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 Rashawn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American86.0% · 4,169
- Two or more races7.0% · 341
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 161
- White2.2% · 109
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 25
Gender
Gender distribution for Rashawn
Rashawn leans heavily male at 90.0% of total registrations, but 709 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rashawn as a male name
- Ranked #3,078 in 2024
- 40 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (248 births)
Rashawn as a female name
- Ranked #17,327 in 2001
- 5 female births in 2001
- Peak: 1979 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rashawn leans strongly male. 4,323 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 532 female bearers (11.0%).
Popularity
Rashawn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rashawn 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 2,335 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
Rashawn 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 Rashawn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rashawns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Ohio recorded the most babies named Rashawn, while Wisconsin, Washington, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 165 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rashawn
The name Rashawn is an English given name that originated in the 20th century as an African American name. It is a combination of the names Rashad and Shawn, both of which have Arabic and Hebrew origins respectively.
The name Rashad is derived from the Arabic word "rashid," meaning "rightly guided" or "righteous." It has its roots in the Islamic faith and has been used as a name in Arab cultures for centuries. On the other hand, the name Shawn is a modern English variant of the Hebrew name "Shavuon," which means "gift from God."
While there are no known historical references to the name Rashawn in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it gained popularity in the United States during the latter half of the 20th century, particularly among African American families. The earliest recorded examples of the name can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Rashawn was Rashawn Brazell, an American football player who played as a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Brazell was born in 1974 and played for teams such as the New Orleans Saints and the Oakland Raiders.
Another notable person with the name Rashawn is Rashawn Breedlove, an American basketball player who played in the NBA Development League and various international leagues in the early 2000s. Breedlove was born in 1981 and attended the University of Connecticut.
Rashawn Ray is an American sociologist and academic who specializes in race relations and social inequalities. He is currently a professor at the University of Maryland and has published several works on topics such as police-community relations and racial bias. Ray was born in 1983.
Rashawn Slater is a professional American football player who currently plays as an offensive tackle for the Los Angeles Chargers in the NFL. He was born in 1997 and was selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Rashawn Tinsley is an American former professional basketball player who played in the NBA and various international leagues in the early 2000s. Tinsley was born in 1977 and attended the University of Southern California.
People
Rashawn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rashawn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rashawn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rashawn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,864 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rashawn 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 49,935 US residents.
Is Rashawn a common name?
We classify Rashawn as "Rare". It ranks above 97.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,080 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rashawn most popular?
The single biggest year for Rashawn was 1993, when 273 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rashawn is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rashawn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,849 people with the name Rashawn, or 1.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,007 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 Rashawn 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 Rashawn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rashawn leans strongly male. 4,323 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 532 female bearers (11.0%). 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 Rashawn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rashawn is Black at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.0%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Rashawn most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rashawn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.0% (4,169 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 Rashawn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rashawn a male name?
Yes, 90.0% of people registered as Rashawn 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 Rashawn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rashawn 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 Rashawn 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 common is the name Rashawn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.