Cheyenne
Cheyenne was given to 285 girls in 2025, #920 among girls’ names; 73,428 Americans have been recorded with it since 1946 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 72,100 Americans named Cheyenne and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 20 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cheyenne by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cheyenne mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cheyenne is “a female or male given name of modern American usage.” Its etymology gives the senses “to speak incoherently” (šaia) and “red” (ša) and “to speak” (ya).
Borrowed from French Cheyenne, from Dakota šahíyena, from Dakota šaia (“to speak incoherently”), from Dakota ša (“red”) and Dakota ya (“to speak”).
/ʃaɪˈæn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cheyenne?
#920 among girls’ names, 2025
Cheyenne fell from #346 in 2015 to #920 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.53 to 0.18 per 1,000.
4,975 babies in 1996, the peak
Cheyenne peaked in 1996, when 4,975 babies were given it (4,866 girls, #68 among girls’ names). The 285 births of 2025 are 6% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 285 | #920 | 0.18 |
| 2024 | 311 | #870 | 0.19 |
| 2023 | 358 | #787 | 0.22 |
| 2022 | 427 | #686 | 0.26 |
| 2021 | 451 | #660 | 0.27 |
| 2020 | 509 | #580 | 0.31 |
| 2019 | 632 | #496 | 0.38 |
| 2018 | 678 | #465 | 0.40 |
| 2017 | 741 | #429 | 0.43 |
| 2016 | 809 | #412 | 0.46 |
Every recorded year (79)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 952 | #346 | 0.53 |
| 2014 | 911 | #360 | 0.51 |
| 2013 | 983 | #330 | 0.56 |
| 2012 | 1,019 | #318 | 0.58 |
| 2011 | 1,159 | #274 | 0.66 |
| 2010 | 1,374 | #229 | 0.77 |
| 2009 | 1,771 | #186 | 1.0 |
| 2008 | 2,111 | #160 | 1.1 |
| 2007 | 2,366 | #147 | 1.2 |
| 2006 | 2,077 | #170 | 1.1 |
| 2005 | 1,966 | #171 | 1.1 |
| 2004 | 2,190 | #149 | 1.2 |
| 2003 | 2,475 | #134 | 1.4 |
| 2002 | 2,712 | #127 | 1.5 |
| 2001 | 2,875 | #119 | 1.6 |
| 2000 | 3,367 | #99 | 1.9 |
| 1999 | 3,779 | #84 | 2.1 |
| 1998 | 4,327 | #72 | 2.4 |
| 1997 | 4,764 | #68 | 2.7 |
| 1996 | 4,866 | #68 | 2.8 |
| 1995 | 4,088 | #86 | 2.3 |
| 1994 | 3,307 | #99 | 1.9 |
| 1993 | 2,372 | #135 | 1.3 |
| 1992 | 1,795 | #169 | 1.0 |
| 1991 | 1,718 | #175 | 0.92 |
| 1990 | 833 | #331 | 0.44 |
| 1989 | 373 | #586 | 0.20 |
| 1988 | 314 | #635 | 0.18 |
| 1987 | 281 | #664 | 0.16 |
| 1986 | 236 | #745 | 0.14 |
| 1985 | 178 | #894 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 175 | #869 | 0.10 |
| 1983 | 202 | #787 | 0.12 |
| 1982 | 190 | #824 | 0.11 |
| 1981 | 164 | #912 | 0.10 |
| 1980 | 176 | #871 | 0.11 |
| 1979 | 130 | #1,063 | 0.08 |
| 1978 | 116 | #1,121 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 109 | #1,153 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 124 | #1,010 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 87 | #1,279 | 0.06 |
| 1974 | 87 | #1,252 | 0.06 |
| 1973 | 53 | #1,691 | 0.04 |
| 1972 | 52 | #1,701 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 38 | #2,144 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 29 | #2,526 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 21 | #2,927 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 13 | #3,820 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #6,953 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,351 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 9 | #4,548 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,116 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 8 | #4,944 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,378 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,253 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,692 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,242 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,727 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 21 | #2,466 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 15 | #2,996 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 19 | #2,527 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 16 | #2,708 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 16 | #2,691 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 13 | #2,959 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 11 | #3,253 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 15 | #2,636 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 7 | #4,261 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 15 | #2,651 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,067 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cheyenne a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 73,428 Americans recorded as Cheyenne, 96% are girls and 4% boys. Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Cheyenne every year since 1974. In 2025 it went to 285 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Cheyenne: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cheyenne, and how old are they?
72,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 73,428 Americans ever recorded as Cheyenne. The median Cheyenne alive today is 27 years old; half are between 20 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 59,831 people named Cheyenne (57,889 women and girls, 1,942 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 70,229 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 355 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,590 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 21,800 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 40,400 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,080 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Cheyenne born?
The states with the most babies named Cheyenne are California, Texas and Georgia, with 38% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 37 | #802 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 34 | #862 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 16 | #649 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,185 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 12 | #788 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 11 | #818 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | #880 | 1.0× |
| Indiana | 9 | #666 | 1.2× |
| Tennessee | 9 | #761 | 1.1× |
| Arizona | 9 | #695 | 1.0× |
Where Cheyenne is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cheyenne is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1946 it was given 1.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Cheyenne with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 92,356 babies since 1880, Cheyenne is the most given (80% of them). In 2025 it was given to 285 of their 331 babies (86%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cheyenne
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cheyenne and names like it
- Compare Cheyenne and CheyanneBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sCheyenne peaked in 1996.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cheyenne since 1910.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Cheyenne.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cheyenne alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.