Deshawn
Deshawn was given to 100 boys in 2025, #1,663 among boys’ names; 17,257 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 16,700 Americans named Deshawn and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 19 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Deshawn by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Deshawn mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Deshawn is “a male given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.”
De- + Shawn. African-American coinage with the prefix De as in DeAndre, DeAngelo, and other names popular in the 1990s + Shawn.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Deshawn?
#1,663 among boys’ names, 2025
Deshawn fell from #1,001 in 2015 to #1,663 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.11 to 0.06 per 1,000.
591 babies in 1994, the peak
Deshawn peaked in 1994, when 591 babies were given it (560 boys, #408 among boys’ names). The 100 births of 2025 are 17% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 100 | #1,663 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 127 | #1,432 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 122 | #1,474 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 130 | #1,415 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 137 | #1,351 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 179 | #1,106 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 177 | #1,113 | 0.10 |
| 2018 | 234 | #918 | 0.13 |
| 2017 | 187 | #1,061 | 0.10 |
| 2016 | 180 | #1,091 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 204 | #1,001 | 0.11 |
| 2014 | 249 | #873 | 0.13 |
| 2013 | 264 | #820 | 0.14 |
| 2012 | 307 | #747 | 0.16 |
| 2011 | 307 | #738 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 370 | #651 | 0.19 |
| 2009 | 351 | #691 | 0.18 |
| 2008 | 422 | #595 | 0.21 |
| 2007 | 448 | #574 | 0.22 |
| 2006 | 511 | #508 | 0.25 |
| 2005 | 381 | #592 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 422 | #546 | 0.21 |
| 2003 | 468 | #514 | 0.24 |
| 2002 | 396 | #562 | 0.20 |
| 2001 | 444 | #510 | 0.23 |
| 2000 | 480 | #487 | 0.24 |
| 1999 | 445 | #493 | 0.23 |
| 1998 | 543 | #426 | 0.28 |
| 1997 | 563 | #411 | 0.30 |
| 1996 | 485 | #452 | 0.26 |
| 1995 | 517 | #444 | 0.27 |
| 1994 | 560 | #408 | 0.29 |
| 1993 | 502 | #438 | 0.26 |
| 1992 | 494 | #447 | 0.25 |
| 1991 | 474 | #453 | 0.23 |
| 1990 | 409 | #480 | 0.20 |
| 1989 | 313 | #549 | 0.16 |
| 1988 | 289 | #539 | 0.15 |
| 1987 | 239 | #586 | 0.13 |
| 1986 | 225 | #591 | 0.12 |
| 1985 | 204 | #612 | 0.11 |
| 1984 | 176 | #651 | 0.10 |
| 1983 | 170 | #656 | 0.09 |
| 1982 | 143 | #724 | 0.08 |
| 1981 | 143 | #724 | 0.08 |
| 1980 | 159 | #688 | 0.09 |
| 1979 | 173 | #651 | 0.10 |
| 1978 | 178 | #625 | 0.11 |
| 1977 | 164 | #659 | 0.10 |
| 1976 | 138 | #712 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 162 | #638 | 0.10 |
| 1974 | 158 | #643 | 0.10 |
| 1973 | 133 | #694 | 0.09 |
| 1972 | 100 | #798 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 78 | #922 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 53 | #1,135 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 31 | #1,449 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 29 | #1,460 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 9 | #2,822 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 11 | #2,510 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 7 | #3,357 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Deshawn a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 17,257 Americans recorded as Deshawn, 7% are girls and 93% boys. Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Deshawn every year since 1972. In 2025 it went to 100 boys; SSA lists no girls 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 Deshawn: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Deshawn, and how old are they?
16,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 17,257 Americans ever recorded as Deshawn. The median Deshawn alive today is 28 years old; half are between 19 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 12,256 people named Deshawn (845 women and girls, 11,411 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,089 born in the U.S. The Census count is 24% 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 | 18 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,040 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,830 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,270 |
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 Deshawn born?
The states with the most babies named Deshawn are Texas, Michigan and California, with 54% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 13 | #1,426 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 8 | #853 | 2.6× |
| California | 6 | #2,259 | 0.7× |
| Virginia | 6 | #998 | 1.7× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,250 | 1.1× |
| Indiana | 6 | #881 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 5 | #1,901 | 1.0× |
Where Deshawn is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Deshawn is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1962 it was given 2.6 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 boys’ 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 Deshawn 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 32,627 babies since 1880, Deshawn is the most given (53% of them). In 2025 it was given to 100 of their 185 babies (54%), 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 Deshawn
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 Deshawn and names like it
- Compare Deshawn and DashawnBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sDeshawn peaked in 1994.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Deshawn since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Deshawn: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1994The year the most babies were named Deshawn.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Deshawn alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.