Shannon

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Shannon is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name177K records spelled Shannon10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Shannón, 'Shannon, Shăññõñ, Sháññóñ

• Greek given name9.0K records spelled Shannon3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Shańnon, Σανον

77 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Shannon is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In French, Irish given name; on this page associated with Jean/Jeanne family.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• In Irish, Name of Ireland's longest river; used as a given name in Ireland.

  as a name·Irish first names

• In English, The longest river in the British Isles, which flows through Ireland into the Atlantic Ocean.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, river, Ireland; pers. name

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In French, Du nom irlandais du fleuve Shannon; origine irlandaise, « ancienne ».

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 122 years between 1881–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Shannon Lucidb. 1943USAmerican biochemist and retired NASA astronaut
• Shannon Walkerb. 1965USAmerican scientist and NASA astronaut
• Shannon Leeb. 1969USAmerican actress
• Shannon Letob. 1970USAmerican drummer
• Shannon Elizabethb. 1973USAmerican actress
• Shannon Millerb. 1977USAmerican artistic gymnast (born 1977)
• Shannon Luciob. 1980USAmerican actress
• Shay Mitchellb. 1987CAnot in their usual nameCanadian actress
• Shannon Kookb. 1987ZASouth African actor (born 1987)
• Shannon Purserb. 1997USAmerican actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,167 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Shannon?

We estimate roughly 263 thousand people bear Shannon (counting its spellings and scripts) across 4 countries in our records.

In which country does Shannon have the most bearers?

We estimate about 262 thousand people bear Shannon in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled shannon.

How common is Shannon compared with other names?

In the United States, Shannon is the 158th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Shannon a male or female name?

Shannon is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Shannon mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) from Irish Gaelic O Seandin, ‘descendant of Seandn’, a personal name meaning ‘little old or wise one’; (ii) a different form of Shanahan.