Shawnae
A feminine variant of Shawn, derived from Irish Gaelic meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 336 living Americans carry the first name Shawnae. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shawnae today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shawnae births was 1998 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shawnae. 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.
People living today
336
~ 1 in 1,020,102 Americans
Peak year
1998
26 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2011 SSA rank
#16,480
Tracked since 1964
Census
Shawnae in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 314 people with the first name Shawnae, which placed it at #28,548 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
#28,548
National first-name rank
People counted
314
314 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shawnae
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawnae is Black at 51.6%. The next largest groups are White (32.5%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Shawnae 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 Shawnae at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.6% · 162
- White32.5% · 102
- Two or more races7.6% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 3
Popularity
Shawnae: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shawnae from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 167 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
Shawnae 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 Shawnae during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shawnae
The name Shawnae is a feminine variant of the name Shawn, which has its origins in the Irish surname Ó Seaghain, derived from the Gaelic name Seaghán. Seaghán is the Irish form of the name John, which comes from the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious."
The earliest recorded use of the name Shawnae dates back to the late 20th century in the United States. It is believed to have emerged as a variant of Shawn, with the added feminine ending "-ae" to create a distinct feminine form.
While there are no known historical figures specifically named Shawnae, there have been notable individuals who bore the name Shawn or its variants throughout history. One such individual was Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, born in 1768, who led a pan-tribal confederacy against the United States during the War of 1812.
Another notable figure was Shawn Fanning, born in 1980, who created the pioneering peer-to-peer file-sharing software Napster in 1999, revolutionizing the way music was distributed and consumed.
Shawn Michaels, born in 1965, is a former professional wrestler and one of the most celebrated performers in the history of the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). He was a multi-time world champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time.
Shawn Colvin, born in 1956, is an American singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner known for her introspective and deeply personal songwriting. Her album "A Few Small Repairs" won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1998.
Shawn Mendes, born in 1998, is a Canadian singer-songwriter who rose to fame through the video-sharing app Vine. He has since become a global pop sensation, with multiple hit singles and albums, and has won numerous awards, including multiple American Music Awards.
People
Shawnae + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shawnae 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
Shawnae: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shawnae?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 336 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shawnae 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 1,020,102 US residents.
Is Shawnae a common name?
We classify Shawnae as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 352 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shawnae most popular?
The single biggest year for Shawnae was 1998, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shawnae is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shawnae in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 314 people with the name Shawnae, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,548 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 Shawnae 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 Shawnae?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shawnae leans strongly female. 310 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 6 male bearers (1.9%). 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 Shawnae?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shawnae is Black at 51.6%. The next largest groups are White (32.5%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). 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 Shawnae most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shawnae in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.6% (162 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 Shawnae in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shawnae a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shawnae 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 Shawnae still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shawnae 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 Shawnae 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 Shawnae?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Shawnae at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.