Shannah
Shannah is a name with a single cultural origin: English.
- English
Meaning & Origin of Shannah
What this name means, where it came from, and how it has traveled across cultures.
Shannah is a name with a single cultural origin: English.
Origin data from Behind the Name .
Cultural Origins (via Behind the Name)
- English
The Story of Shannah
The earliest SSA record of Shannah as a baby girl name dates back to 1945, when 6 babies received it. 1978 was its biggest year on record, with 51 newborns named Shannah — #1,915 in the national rankings. About 28% of every Shannah on record arrived during the 1980s, its defining decade. Shannah last appeared in the published SSA data in 2014, with 7 recorded births — it has not charted nationally since. All told, over 1K Americans have carried the name since 1880, from the 1940s to the 2020s.
Popularity Over Time
Popularity by State
Variants & Related Forms of Shannah
Foreign forms, alternate spellings, and nicknames that share roots with Shannah. Linked entries have a profile on Peek a Name.
Names that sound like Shannah
Phonetically similar names — useful when Shannah is the vibe but a different syllable count or letter feel might suit better. Linked entries have a profile on Peek a Name.
Source: Datamuse . Phonetic similarity ranking, not curated.
Frequently Asked Questions about Shannah
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About the name Shannah
Shannah is a girl baby name tracked by the U.S. Social Security Administration. It first appeared in SSA records in 1945 and has accumulated 1K births in the dataset. Shannah's peak popularity came in 1978 when it ranked #1,915. Use the chart and map above to compare Shannah's trajectory across years and U.S. states, or browse the related names section to discover similar choices.
Continue exploring
- Top names of 1978 →
- Names of the 1970s →
- Names starting with "S" →
- Browse all girl names →
- Top names of 2026 →
Data sources
- Birth statistics (counts, ranks, years 1880–2026) — U.S. Social Security Administration . Predictions for years not yet released by SSA are computed by Peek a Name from historical trends; we update with official data as soon as it ships.
- Etymology, cultural origins, and related forms — Behind the Name (used under their public API terms).
- Meaning prose and editorial summary — Wikipedia article extracts, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 .
- Predicted nationality distribution — Nationalize.io .
- Phonetically similar names — Datamuse .
Peek a Name aggregates and presents the above data for informational purposes. Statistical predictions and external attributions are clearly labelled where shown; we make no guarantee of accuracy beyond what each source provides.