Shayne
An English unisex name derived from Old English meaning "bright" or "brilliant".
Name Census estimates that about 12,927 living Americans carry the first name Shayne. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Shayne today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shayne births was 1990 (446 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shayne. 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 Shayne with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,515 Americans
Peak year
1990
446 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,042
Tracked since 1943
Census
Shayne in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,391 people with the first name Shayne, which placed it at #2,274 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
#2,274
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,391 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shayne
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shayne is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Two or More Races (6.3%). 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 Shayne 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 Shayne at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.5% · 8,483
- Black or African American8.5% · 966
- Two or more races6.3% · 713
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 639
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 419
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 171
Gender
Gender distribution for Shayne
Shayne is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 13,655 total registrations, 10,708 (78.4%) were male and 2,947 (21.6%) were female.
Shayne as a male name
- Ranked #4,042 in 2024
- 27 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (399 births)
Shayne as a female name
- Ranked #7,514 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (87 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shayne on both sides of the split. Of the 11,386 people counted with this name, 8,734 were male (76.7%) and 2,652 were female (23.3%).
Popularity
Shayne: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shayne 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 3,545 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
Shayne 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 Shayne during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shaynes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Shayne, while Rhode Island, Vermont, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 184 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shayne
The name Shayne has its origins in the Irish language, derived from the Gaelic word "Seán," which is the Irish version of the name John. The name Shayne is believed to have emerged as a variant spelling during the 16th or 17th century when many Irish names were anglicized by English settlers and scribes.
Seán is a traditional Irish name with roots dating back to ancient Celtic times. It is derived from the Hebrew name "Yohanan," meaning "Yahweh is gracious." The name gained popularity in Ireland after it was introduced by early Christian missionaries, and it became a common name among the Irish people.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shayne can be found in the 17th century Irish annals, where it appears as a surname. In the late 16th century, a man named Shane O'Neill, also known as the Great Shane, was an influential Irish chieftain and the leader of the O'Neill dynasty in Ulster.
Among the notable historical figures who bore the name Shayne, we can mention Shane Leslie (1885-1971), an Irish writer, politician, and diplomat who served as a member of the Irish Free State Senate. Another prominent figure was Shane MacGowan (born 1957), the Irish-British singer-songwriter and lead singer of the Celtic punk band The Pogues.
In the realm of literature, the name Shayne appears in the works of Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), who featured a character named Shayne in his novel "Watt." Additionally, Shayne was the first name of the protagonist in the popular detective novel series by Brett Halliday, featuring the character Michael Shayne, a fictional private investigator.
Other notable individuals with the first name Shayne include Shayne Ward (born 1984), an English pop singer and actor who won the second series of the British talent show "The X Factor" in 2005, and Shayne Gostisbehere (born 1993), an American professional ice hockey player currently playing for the Arizona Coyotes in the National Hockey League.
While the name Shayne has its roots in Irish culture, it has gained popularity worldwide and has been adopted by various cultures and ethnicities, making it a diverse and multicultural name with a rich historical background.
People
Shayne + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shayne 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
Shayne: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shayne?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,927 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shayne 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 26,515 US residents.
Is Shayne a common name?
We classify Shayne as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 13,655 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shayne most popular?
The single biggest year for Shayne was 1990, when 446 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shayne is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shayne in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,391 people with the name Shayne, or 3.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,274 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 Shayne 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 Shayne?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shayne on both sides of the split. Of the 11,386 people counted with this name, 8,734 were male (76.7%) and 2,652 were female (23.3%). 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 Shayne?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shayne is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Two or More Races (6.3%). 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 Shayne most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shayne in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.5% (8,483 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 Shayne in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shayne a male name?
Yes, 78.4% of people registered as Shayne 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 Shayne still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shayne 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 Shayne 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 Shayne?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.