Shawn

S1H4A1W4N1
UK/ʃɔːn/Australia, British, New Zealand, Southern, Standard/ʃoːn/US/ʃɔn/US, cot caught merger/ʃɑn/

A form of Shaun — A male given name from Irish.

OriginIrish Seán ← Old French Jehan ← Latin Jōhannēs →
CommonScrabble 11
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. USalternativeAlternative form of Shaun, a unisex given name.

    Two weeks later Dot and her girl, who was finally named Shawn, like most girls born that year, came back to work at the scales.

    1984, Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine, Bantam Books, published 1987, →ISBN, page 169
    2 more examples

    Or take Sean, S-E-A-N. Been spelled like that for about five hundred years. But not them, they've gotta spell it S-H-A-W-N. Like they have a right to that name in the first place.

    1996, Tobias Wolff, The Night in Question: Stories, Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 141

    Earlier this week, an anonymous Jane Doe filed an amended complaint against Combs and Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, which revealed that a previously unnamed celebrity in her original complaint against Combs, initially filed in October, was Carter.

    2024 December 14, Elizabeth Wagmeister, “Jay-Z says inconsistencies in rape accuser’s story proves her attorney was looking for ‘money and fame’”, in CNN

Origin

  1. Hebrewיוֹחָנָן
  2. Koine GreekἸωάννης
  3. LatinJōhannēs
  4. Old FrenchJehan
  5. IrishSeán
  6. EnglishShawn

A variant of Sean, from Irish Seán, from Old French Jehan, from Latin Jōhannēs, variant of Iōannēs, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (yōḥānān, yokhanán, literally “God is gracious”). Doublet of Evan, Giovanni, Ian, Ivan, Jack, Jean, Johan, Johann, Johannes, John, Juan, Sean, Shane, and Shaun as a male name. Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, Shauna, and Sheena as a female name.

More words from Irish, Old French, Latin

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with Shawn

ongoneseandrawndawnlawnwithdrawnVaughanShaunthereonpawnyawnStrachanSiobhansawnawnbrawnpwnstrawnKhersonwhereonrespawnfaunhereon
All rhymes →

Sounds the same

SeanShaunshorn (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)Sian (female given name, cot–caught merger, father–bother merger)
Cite this entry
APA

Shawn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Shawn

MLA

“Shawn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Shawn. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Shawn,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Shawn.

Source: Shawn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.