9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Shawn vs Oliver

How Shawn and Oliver compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Shawn

Male · English

Meaning: From The Shady Grove

Oliver

Male · French

Meaning: Legend Name

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Shawn (boys) vs Oliver (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Shawn Oliver
Peak year (most US births) 1971 — 12,825 boys 2024 — 15,343 boys
Peak rank #28 #3
Most recent rank (2025) #682 (399 births) #3 (14,939 births)
Total US births since 1880 275,406 212,737
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 6,349 142,959

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Oliver reached 15,343 US births in 2024 — 2,518 more than Shawn's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Shawn births Oliver births
1964 Shawn 4,402 0
2007 Oliver 2,349 2,910

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Shawn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Delaware #165 23
2 New Hampshire #255 15
3 Hawaii #255 18
4 West Virginia #326 20
5 Pennsylvania #333 331

Oliver — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Oregon #1 2,043
2 Iowa #1 1,836
3 Utah #1 2,587
4 Idaho #1 1,137
5 Wisconsin #1 2,988

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →