girl's name
Cheyenne
shy-AN
- Origin Native American
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 8
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 80,304
the United States
#921
2025 births
Cheyenne is not the Cheyenne people's own name for themselves — it is a Sioux word meaning red speakers, applied from outside. Their own name is Tsitsistas, and the two mean entirely different things.
- Cheyenne is a name of Native American origin.
- Peaked in 1996, when 4,975 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 11,633 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1946.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Cheyenne over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1940s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 47 |
| 1950s | 322 |
| 1960s | 253 |
| 1970s | 1,345 |
| 1980s | 2,792 |
| 1990s | 32,754 |
| 2000s | 24,201 |
| 2010s | 9,344 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,370 |
What Cheyenne means
Cheyenne means red speakers, or those who speak differently. The Sioux word describes a people whose language the speakers could not understand, so it marks difference rather than identity.
Where Cheyenne comes from
Cheyenne comes from the Dakota Sioux šahíyena, usually read as red speakers or people of alien speech — red in this context marking a language the speakers did not understand. The Cheyenne call themselves Tsitsistas, generally translated as the people. So the name in common use is an exonym, a name given from outside, which is the opposite of Dakota, whose name is the people's own word for friend. The Wyoming city and the given name both take the exonym.
Cheyenne in use
Cheyenne peaked in the United States in 1996, when 4,975 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It charts in four of the seven markets we track — 921st in the United States on 285 births, 4072nd in Canada, 5887th in England and Wales and 7397th in France — across 80,304 lifetime births. About 96 percent of recorded births are female. Our records carry it only from 1943.
How popular is Cheyenne?
In 2025, Cheyenne was given to 285 babies in the United States, ranking #921 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Cheyenne is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Cheyenne
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Cheyenne also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Cheyenne over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Cheyenne
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Cheyenne in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Cheyenne
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Cheyenne — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Cheyenne
What does the name Cheyenne mean?
Red speakers — a Sioux word for people whose language the speakers could not understand.
Is it the Cheyenne people's own name?
No. They call themselves Tsitsistas. Cheyenne is an exonym, a name given from outside.
How does it compare with Dakota?
The opposite — Dakota is the people's own word for friend, while Cheyenne came from their neighbors.
How popular is Cheyenne?
921st in the United States, down from a 1996 peak of 4,975 births.
Is Cheyenne a girl's or a boy's name?
Cheyenne is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Cheyenne?
Cheyenne has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Cheyenne?
Cheyenne is usually shortened to Shy.
Is Cheyenne a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Cheyenne currently ranks #921 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.