Shaun
A masculine name of Irish/Gaelic origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 69,150 living Americans carry the first name Shaun. It is a predominantly male name (95.7% of registrations). The average person named Shaun today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shaun births was 1978 (6,221 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shaun. 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 Shaun with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Shaun is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,129 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1980s, recent registration numbers for Shaun have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
69K
~ 1 in 4,957 Americans
Peak year
1978
6,221 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,573
Tracked since 1935
Census
Shaun in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 64,428 people with the first name Shaun, which placed it at #773 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
#773
National first-name rank
People counted
64K
64,428 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
21.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shaun
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaun is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Black (14.0%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). 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 Shaun 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 Shaun at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.8% · 46,265
- Black or African American14.0% · 9,029
- Two or more races5.3% · 3,406
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 3,052
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 2,074
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 602
Gender
Gender distribution for Shaun
Shaun leans heavily male at 95.7% of total registrations, but 3,129 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shaun as a male name
- Ranked #1,573 in 2024
- 110 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1978 (6,105 births)
Shaun as a female name
- Ranked #15,037 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1970 (138 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shaun leans strongly male. 61,744 people counted with this name were male (95.8%), compared with 2,674 female bearers (4.2%).
Popularity
Shaun: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shaun from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 24,941 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shaun 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 Shaun during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shauns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Shaun, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,345 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shaun
Shaun is a masculine given name derived from the Irish name Seán, which is the Irish form of the name John. The name John comes from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name Seán was anglicized to the spelling Shaun, likely due to the influence of the Norman French language in Ireland during the Middle Ages.
The name Shaun has its roots in early Christianity, as it is a variant of the name John, one of the most prominent figures in the New Testament and one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. The name gained popularity in Ireland and was later adopted in other English-speaking countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shaun can be found in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient chronicle of medieval Irish history. The annals mention a Shaun O'Donnell, who was the chief of the O'Donnell clan in the 14th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Shaun. One of the most famous is Shaun White (born 1986), an American professional snowboarder and skateboarder who has won numerous Olympic and X Games gold medals.
Another well-known Shaun is Shaun Tan (born 1974), an Australian writer and illustrator who has won numerous awards, including the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, for his children's books.
In the world of literature, Shaun Davey (1948-2022) was an Irish composer and arranger who collaborated with poets such as Seamus Heaney and created music for film and television.
Sir Shaun Woodward (born 1958) is a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament and held various ministerial positions in the Labour government.
Shaun Marsh (born 1983) is an Australian cricketer who has represented his country in all formats of the game and has played in several international tournaments.
While the name Shaun has its roots in Irish and Christian history, it has become a popular name in various cultures and regions around the world, transcending its original linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Shaun
People
Shaun + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shaun as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shaun: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shaun?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 69,150 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shaun 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 4,957 US residents.
Is Shaun a common name?
We classify Shaun 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, 73,527 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shaun most popular?
The single biggest year for Shaun was 1978, when 6,221 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shaun is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shaun in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 64,428 people with the name Shaun, or 21.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #773 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 Shaun 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 Shaun?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shaun leans strongly male. 61,744 people counted with this name were male (95.8%), compared with 2,674 female bearers (4.2%). 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 Shaun?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaun is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Black (14.0%) and Two or More Races (5.3%). 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 Shaun most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shaun in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (46,265 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 Shaun in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shaun a male name?
Yes, 95.7% of people registered as Shaun 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 Shaun still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shaun 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 Shaun 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 Shaun?
You can see how many people share the name Shaun on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.