Cheyenne

About Cheyenne

Cheyenne is the name of a Great Plains Indigenous people, later adopted as an English given name and used for Wyoming's capital city. Its usual pronunciation is shy-AN. The name brings together living tribal history, western geography, and a modern American first-name tradition that became especially popular for girls in the 1990s.

The people's name

The familiar English name is usually traced to a Lakota form, šahiyena, whose precise interpretation varies. The Cheyenne people's own name Tsistsistas means Human Beings or The People. The two terms belong to different naming histories.

Cheyenne therefore begins as the name of a people rather than as an English personal name with a simple descriptive translation. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes use Tsistsistas within their language and cultural work, including programs that connect elders, adult learners, and children.

That living language tradition is an important part of the name's background. Modern personal use developed much later than the people and languages associated with it.

Cheyenne, Wyoming

The city of Cheyenne began in 1867 as the Union Pacific Railroad extended westward. Its site was surveyed by Grenville Dodge, and the settlement was named for the Cheyenne people.

Growth was rapid enough to earn the nickname Magic City of the Plains. A city charter was established in August 1867, when the settlement was still part of Dakota Territory. The later Wyoming capital helped make Cheyenne a familiar geographical name across the United States.

The city and personal name share their spelling, but the city's history is a further use of the people's name rather than its origin. Its railroad beginnings give the word a particularly strong place in the geography of the American West.

Cheyenne Jackson on stage

Actor and singer Cheyenne Jackson starred in All Shook Up, the musical built around songs made famous by Elvis Presley. In the 2005 production he played a leather-jacketed stranger whose arrival unsettles an Eisenhower-era town.

The musical used an original story rather than presenting Presley's biography. Jackson's role put his distinctive first name into the credits and publicity of a Broadway production, giving Cheyenne a modern masculine performance association alongside its more frequent female American use.

Pronunciation and related spellings

Cheyenne has two syllables, with stress on the second. The initial ch has a sh sound, and the final syllable rhymes with Ann. Cheyanne and Shyanne are established spelling alternatives.

The written form can look longer than its spoken rhythm suggests. Its central y helps mark the long i sound of the first syllable in the usual English pronunciation.

American popularity

Cheyenne reached its strongest United States girls' ranking and largest annual count in 1996: #68, with 4,866 births. It remained at #99 in 2000, then declined to #920 in 2025, with 285 girls.

The male record is smaller, including a peak of 122 boys in 1995. Its largest American wave thus belongs to the late twentieth century.

How popular is Cheyenne?

In 2025, Cheyenne ranked #920 among girls in the United States, with 285 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1946; its largest annual count was 4,866 in 1996. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.