boy's name
Sean
SHAWN
- Origin Irish
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 1
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 503,050
the United States
#489
2025 births
Sean is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "God is gracious," the Irish form of John by way of Norman French. It ranks 23rd in Ireland and 50th in Northern Ireland.
- Sean is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in 1990, when 12,070 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 5,322 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1925.
Sean over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1920s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1920s | 12 |
| 1930s | 106 |
| 1940s | 676 |
| 1950s | 5,589 |
| 1960s | 47,745 |
| 1970s | 84,407 |
| 1980s | 104,680 |
| 1990s | 92,590 |
| 2000s | 64,406 |
| 2010s | 21,606 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 4,789 |
What Sean means
Sean means God is gracious. The sense belongs to the Hebrew original rather than to anything Irish: Yohanan combines a form of the divine name with a root meaning to be gracious, and every European descendant of it carries that reading.
Where Sean comes from
Sean is the anglicized spelling of the Irish Seán, which entered Irish not from Latin but from the Norman French Jehan — the Normans arrived in Ireland in 1169 and brought their form of John with them. Irish had no letter j, so Jehan became Seán. The ultimate source is the Hebrew Yohanan, God is gracious, borne by John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, which is why the name spread through every Christian language: Jean, Juan, Johannes, Ivan, Giovanni. Irish also has Eoin, an older borrowing straight from the Latin Ioannes, and the two coexist — Eoin is generally used for the biblical Johns and Seán for everyone else. The Sean spelling without the fada is the standard export form; Shaun and Shawn are phonetic respellings that arose in Britain and North America.
Sean in use
Sean ranks 23rd in Ireland with 231 births in 2025 and 50th in Northern Ireland, and it is falling in our data from a peak in 1990. That decline is broad — 489th in the United States, 619th in England and Wales — and reflects a generation of Irish parents moving toward names that read as distinctly Irish rather than as Irish forms of international names. Our records carry it from 1925.
How popular is Sean?
In 2025, Sean was given to 623 babies in the United States, ranking #489 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Sean 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.
How Sean is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Seán | Seán is Sean written with a fada in Ireland, and the spelling parents there overwhelmingly choose: it ranks #23 in Ireland, against #145 for Sean. | 1,998 |
| Séan | Séan is a rare spelling of Sean, written with an acute accent and recorded about 162 times, mostly in France. | 162 |
| Seàn | Seàn is a rare spelling of Sean, written with a grave accent and recorded 7 times, mostly in Ireland. | 7 |
Names that peaked alongside Sean
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Sean also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Sean over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Sean 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 Sean
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Sean — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Sean
What does the name Sean mean?
Sean means "God is gracious," inherited from the Hebrew Yohanan through John.
Why does Sean sound like Shawn?
Irish has no letter j, so the Norman French Jehan was rendered Seán, where se- gives a sh sound.
What is the difference between Sean and Eoin?
Both mean John. Eoin came directly from Latin and is used for the biblical Johns; Seán came later through Norman French.
How popular is Sean?
Twenty-third in Ireland and 50th in Northern Ireland, and falling in both.
Is Sean a girl's or a boy's name?
Sean is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Sean?
Sean has 1 syllable.
Is Sean a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Sean currently ranks #23 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.