Names/S

Sean

boys’ nameFallingCompare

Sean is ranked 436th among boys in 2024 (726 births). Its best rank was 33rd, in 1972.

Rank in 2024
#436down 9 from 2023
Births in 2024
7260.04% of boys
Peak year
199012,018 births
Best rank
#33in 1972
Since 1925
425,998people given the name
Babies named Sean, by year of birthboys
05k10k15k20k18801900192019401960198020002020

The story in the numbers

423,036 boys have been named Sean in the United States since 1925, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1990, with 12,018 births — 0.59% of all boys recorded that year.

It is falling: its share of births is 60% or less of what it was ten years ago (rank 193 → 436).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1987, and the 1980s alone account for 25%. It has spent 82 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 45 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,962 girls have also been given it, 0.70% of the total.

Rank among boys, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)
#1#250#500#750#100018801900192019401960198020002020

By decade

Decadeboys named Sean
1920s12
1930s101
1940s659
1950s5,452
1960s47,284
1970s83,843
1980s103,875
1990s92,001
2000s64,131
2010s21,534
2020s4,144

In 1990, its biggest year

Sean was the 37th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1990 were Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua and Daniel. See all of 1990.

Names that rose and fell with Sean

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.