Seamus
- Pronunciation
- [Sea-mus]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Form Of James Supplanter.
- Origin
- Irish
About the Name Seamus
Seamus is the Irish form of James, the enduring biblical name traditionally understood through its Hebrew root as "supplanter" — one who follows after and takes the place of another. As the distinctly Gaelic version, Seamus carries a deep sense of Irish heritage and identity, its spelling and sound rooted firmly in the language and culture of Ireland, where it has long been a warm and familiar everyday name.
Among its notable bearers is the celebrated Irish poet Seamus Heaney (born 1939), a poet, playwright, and translator whose decades-long literary career earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His towering reputation has lent the name a quiet prestige and a strong, lasting association with Irish letters and the wider world of poetry. Recorded variants include Shamus and Shay, offering both a phonetic spelling and a warm, friendly short form for everyday use.
Seamus first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for boys in 2000 and peaked in 2003 at rank #735. It held a place in the rankings through 2017, ranking #979 that year, after sitting at #946 in 2015 with 221 births. Across its run it accounts for 4,339 recorded births, marking it as a proudly Irish choice with lasting appeal. It remains a proudly Irish choice with literary prestige and an enduring, heartfelt appeal.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Seamus
US Popularity History (2000–2017)
Annual US births named Seamus by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2008 with 298 boys named Seamus (boy rank #753 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2017, ranked #979 for boys (211 US births). That's 226 places below its 2008 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Seamus Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Seamus the strongest states are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | #361 | 149 |
| 2 | Connecticut | #398 | 22 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #668 | 121 |
| 4 | Washington | #729 | 39 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | #756 | 18 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #829 | 55 |
| 7 | Maryland | #846 | 29 |
| 8 | Minnesota | #847 | 22 |
| 9 | Michigan | #857 | 25 |
| 10 | Colorado | #861 | 16 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #917 | 59 |
| 2 | Ohio | #893 | 28 |
| 3 | New York | #876 | 109 |
| 4 | Colorado | #861 | 16 |
| 5 | Michigan | #857 | 25 |
| 6 | Minnesota | #847 | 22 |
| 7 | Maryland | #846 | 29 |
| 8 | New Jersey | #829 | 55 |
| 9 | Wisconsin | #756 | 18 |
| 10 | Washington | #729 | 39 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Seamus in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Seamus
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Seamus.
- Seamus Heaney — Novelist (1939)
Looking for names like Seamus?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Seamus to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Seamus against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).