Seán
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/sɛɑːn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Seán is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Ireland it is the 23rd most common given name. Recorded meaning: Borrowed from Old French Jehan, from Latin Iōhannēs, from Ancient Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), contraction from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yōḥānān, literally “God is gracious”).
- IEIreland≈1 in 344(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 698
- AUAustralia≈1 in 756
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Seán itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #251 (measured from records)
- 4 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 646 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 344 (inferred from the name graph)
377,127 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Sean in US United States, GB United Kingdom, AU Australia and 3 more and Shaun in ZA South Africa.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
- Old FrenchJehan(measured from records)
- LatinIōhannēs(measured from records)
- Ancient GreekἸωάννηςIōánnēs(measured from records)
- Hebrewיוֹחָנָןyōḥānān“God is gracious”(measured from records)
Borrowed from Old French Jehan, from Latin Iōhannēs, from Ancient Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), contraction from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yōḥānān, literally “God is gracious”).
Sources 2
Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Seán counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #117 | 377,127 | 1 in 882 | 375K | Sean | 646 |
| GB United Kingdom | #74 | ≈94,000 est. | ≈1 in 698 | 102 | Sean | 363 |
| CA Canada | #119 | ≈41,000 est. | ≈1 in 928 | 11 | Sean | 336 |
| ZA South Africa | #48 | ≈37,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | — | Shaun | 161 |
| AU Australia | #85 | ≈34,000 est. | ≈1 in 756 | 122 | Sean | 324 |
| IE Ireland | #23 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 344 | 255 | Sean | 188 |
| NZ New Zealand | #76 | ≈5,700 est. | ≈1 in 871 | 10 | Sean | 163 |
377,127 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Seán is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Irish Gaelic form of JOHN , derived in the early Middle Ages from Anglo-Norman Jehan . The name has always been common in Ireland, but is now being increasingly chosen also by parents who have no Irish connections (usually without the accent, Sean ).
as a word
In Irish, a male given name from Old French, equivalent to English John or French Jean
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Seán O'Caseyb. 1880IEIrish writer (1880–1964)
- Seán T. O'Kellyb. 1882IEsecond President of Ireland (1882-1966)
- Seán Mac Diarmadab. 1883IEIrish revolutionary (1883-1916)
- Seán MacBrideb. 1904FRIrish politician and human rights activist (1904-1988)
- Sean Patrick O'Malleyb. 1944USRoman Catholic cardinal
- Seán McGinleyb. 1956IEIrish actor
- Sean Kellyb. 1956IEIrish former professional road bicycle racer
- Sean Lennonb. 1975USAmerican composer and musician, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Sean Fraserb. 1984CACanadian politician (born 1984)
- Jacksepticeyeb. 1990IEnot in their usual nameIrish YouTuber
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 16 sources across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2018 | 317 | #13 |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2019 | 255 | #23 |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2023 | 1 | #2,230 |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2021 | 1 | #2,059 |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2016 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2015 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2014 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2013 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2012 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2011 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2010 | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you pronounce Seán?
- A machine transcription gives /sɛɑːn/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Seán mean, and where does it come from?
- Borrowed from Old French Jehan, from Latin Iōhannēs, from Ancient Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), contraction from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yōḥānān, literally “God is gracious”). Recorded by Wiktionary and Nordic Names.
- What are other forms of the name Seán?
- In the etymology graph, John, Jack and Shawn are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Seán a male or female name?
- Seán is a male 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.
- In which country does Seán have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 377 thousand people named Seán, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sean.
- How common is the name Seán?
- In the United States, the national register counted 377,127 people named Seán in 2020, about 1 in 882 residents.
- How common is Seán compared with other names?
- In the United States, Seán is the 117th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Seán?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/se%C3%A1nThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Seán” — the 117th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.