Shawnee

Where Shawnee comes from

Ultimately from Shawnee saawanwa (“Shawnee”) or saawanoki (“southerners”), a hypothetical intermediary term is sometimes supposed to have facilitated the entry into English, such as Munsee sawanow. Likely a re-analysis of Shawnese as the plural Shawnees.
— Wiktionary's entry for Shawnee
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1943
    First appearance
    #4,691 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1992
    Peak, #865
    228 babies named Shawnee — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1999
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,857.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name, derived from the name of this tribe.
Namesakes
  • Shawnee Kish · Mohawk singer-songwriter based in what is known as Canada

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.