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Shawanda

Girls' name

Modern coinage; no established literal translation

Shawanda has been given to 2,853 babies in the U.S. since 1960. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1977, with 186 recorded.

Babies named Shawanda, 2007

1 in 800,000

Shawanda over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shawanda: meaning, origin, and history

Modern coinage; no established literal translation

coinages

What Shawanda means

Shawanda is a modern given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Shawanda is used in English. Its origins include coinages.

Shawanda is a modern formation.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,853 girls were recorded with the name Shawanda between 1960 and 2007. Its highest annual count was 186 in 1977; its best national rank was #810 in 1977.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Shawanda?

Shawanda had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2007, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2007
1 in 800,000
5 of 3,997,748 births
Among girls only
1 in 384,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2007
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
554,207 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shawanda sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2007 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 554,207 children born in 2007 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shawanda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shawandas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shawanda was born before 1979 — so the typical Shawanda is around 46 today.

Median birth year
1979
About 46 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
44.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
33.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,853
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 44.8% of all recorded uses (1,279).

Is Shawanda rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1977 (186)
Years since peak
48
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#810
1977

Spellings of Shawanda

Shawanda is not the most common spelling — Shawna is, with 45.6% against Shawanda's 2.9%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Shawanda is used

Across 1910–2025, Shawanda was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 8,333 girls, against 1 in 48,453 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

012 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 8,333
  2. 2Mississippi1 in 8,333
  3. 3Georgia1 in 16,667
  4. 4Alabama1 in 20,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 25,000
  6. 6South Carolina1 in 25,000
  7. 7North Carolina1 in 50,000
  8. 8Virginia1 in 50,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Shawanda has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shawanda by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#810
1977
Peak year
1977
186 that year
First recorded
1960
Last recorded
2007
All-time count
2,853
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shawanda

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ShalondaShalandaSharondaShawndaShavondaShaundaSharhondaSharandaShaquandaShalindaShandaShaniyahShaylynnShaelynnShanelleShawondaShalundaShanayaShaelynShaindyShacondaShayleneShaylynShamanda

Names with a curve like Shawanda

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Shawanda, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

NicholKeeshaRashidaCrissyLashundaKieshaTarraJennifferNakishaMistieKenyettaMandie

Sibling names for Shawanda

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Shawanda

Top names of 1977, Shawanda's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1977Girls' names starting with S