How popular is the baby name Sean in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Sean.

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Popularity of the baby name Sean


Posts that mention the name Sean

Baby born at restaurant, named after restaurant

seafood

In April of 2024, Alyse Sparkman of Michigan began experiencing contractions, so she and her husband Sean went to the hospital.

They were sent home after doctors decided that Alyse wasn’t in active labor.

On the way back, Alyse and Sean stopped to eat at a restaurant called at Lily’s Seafood Grill and Brewery.

While Alyse was chewing her first bite of food, her water broke.

Just a few minutes later, she gave birth to a baby girl.

The couple had planned to name their daughter Penelope Danielle, but her unusual birthplace inspired them to change the middle name to Lily.

Penelope’s two older brothers are named Logan and Quill.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Fish and chips (crop) by Thomas Gun under CC BY-SA 3.0.

How did “Good Will Hunting” influence baby names?

The characters Skylar and Will from the movie "Good Will Hunting" (1997)
Skylar and Will from “Good Will Hunting“

The protagonist of the movie Good Will Hunting, which was released in December of 1997, was a young man from South Boston named Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon).

Will Hunting saw “nothing wrong with spending his whole life hanging out with his friends, quaffing a few beers, holding down a blue-collar job.”

The problem? He was also a self-taught mathematical genius with a photographic memory.

So several people in his life — including his best friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck), his psychotherapist Sean (Robin Williams), and his girlfriend Skylar (Minnie Driver) — pushed him to rise above his troubled past and embrace his gifts. As Chuckie put it, Will was “sitting on a winning lottery ticket” — he just had to find the courage to cash it in.

Good Will Hunting became one of the highest-grossing films of 1998. It also won a pair of Academy Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor (Williams), the other for Best Original Screenplay (Damon and Affleck).

So how did the movie affect the baby name charts?

The usage of Will, which was the only name used to refer to the main character (i.e., he was never called William), increased in 1998:

  • 2000: 447 baby boys named Will [rank: 510th]
  • 1999: 422 baby boys named Will [rank: 506th]
  • 1998: 339 baby boys named Will [rank: 578th]
  • 1997: 268 baby boys named Will [rank: 634th]
  • 1996: 280 baby boys named Will [rank: 622nd]

And the slow rise of Skylar for baby girls accelerated noticeably the same year:

Girls named SkylarBoys named Skylar
20002,503 [rank: 135th]748 [rank: 356th]
19992,513 [rank: 131st]695 [rank: 374th]
19981,731 [rank: 173rd]730 [rank: 358th]
1997953 [rank: 302nd]657 [rank: 372nd]
1996855 [rank: 328th]636 [rank: 373rd]

(The names Wil, Skyler, and Skyla also saw higher usage in 1998.)

Matt Damon wrote the first draft of the script for Good Will Hunting while attending Harvard College in the early ’90s. He based the character of Skylar, a pre-med student at Harvard, on his then-girlfriend, Skylar Satenstein, a former pre-med student at Harvard. (She’d since become a med student at Columbia.)

Incidentally, Satenstein went on the marry Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich (son of Torben Ulrich) in early 1997. Later the same year, Lars and Skylar attended the local premiere of Good Will Hunting together in New York City.

P.S. The movie was shot during the spring of 1997, which overlapped with the end of my own freshman year at Harvard. I remember other students saying they’d spotted a film crew in the area during those months.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Good Will Hunting

Popular baby names in Northern Ireland (UK), 2024

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

Last year, Northern Ireland — one of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom — welcomed more than 19,400 babies.

What were the most popular baby names among these babies? Grace and James.

Here are Northern Ireland’s top 50+ girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Grace, 125 baby girls
  2. Olivia, 109
  3. Fiadh, 104
  4. Aoife, 97
  5. Emily, 96
  6. Charlotte, 95 (tie)
  7. Lily, 95 (tie)
  8. Isla, 91 (tie)
  9. Sophia, 91 (tie)
  10. Freya, 90
  11. Annie, 89
  12. Ella, 85
  13. Eabha, 80
  14. Amelia, 74 (tie)
  15. Sophie, 74 (tie)
  16. Evie, 73
  17. Meabh, 71
  18. Ellie, 69
  19. Anna, 65
  20. Clodagh, 61 (tie)
  21. Mia, 61 (tie)
  22. Aria, 59 (3-way tie)
  23. Maisie, 59 (3-way tie)
  24. Rosie, 59 (3-way tie)
  25. Erin, 58
  26. Croia, 55
  27. Elsie, 54
  28. Bonnie, 53 (tie)
  29. Molly, 53 (tie)
  30. Phoebe, 52 (tie)
  31. Sienna, 52 (tie)
  32. Ava, 51
  33. Cara, 50 (tie)
  34. Daisy, 50 (tie)
  35. Ivy, 49
  36. Clara, 47
  37. Saoirse, 46
  38. Lucy, 45 (tie)
  39. Ruby, 45 (tie)
  40. Cora, 44
  41. Rose, 43
  42. Eva, 42 (tie)
  43. Sadie, 42 (tie)
  44. Isabella, 39 (3-way tie)
  45. Nora, 39 (3-way tie)
  46. Willow, 39 (3-way tie)
  47. Ada, 37 (5-way tie)
  48. Katie, 37 (5-way tie)
  49. Maya, 37 (5-way tie)
  50. Niamh, 37 (5-way tie)
  51. Poppy, 37 (5-way tie)

Boy names

  1. James, 143 baby boys
  2. Cillian, 142
  3. Noah, 139
  4. Jack, 130
  5. Theo, 125
  6. Jude, 124
  7. Luca, 109
  8. Charlie, 106
  9. Oisin, 105
  10. Oliver, 104
  11. Thomas, 96
  12. Leo, 94
  13. Harry, 89 (tie)
  14. Jacob, 89 (tie)
  15. Finn, 84
  16. Arthur, 83
  17. Alfie, 82 (3-way tie)
  18. Daithi, 82 (3-way tie)
  19. Freddie, 82 (3-way tie)
  20. Archie, 77 (tie)
  21. Tommy, 77 (tie)
  22. Rian, 67
  23. Ollie, 65
  24. Conan, 62
  25. Ronan, 61
  26. Caleb, 60 (4-way tie)
  27. Fionn, 60 (4-way tie)
  28. Isaac, 60 (4-way tie)
  29. Patrick, 60 (4-way tie)
  30. Lucas, 57 (tie)
  31. Max, 57 (tie)
  32. Theodore, 55
  33. Rory, 54
  34. Joseph, 53 (3-way tie)
  35. Oscar, 53 (3-way tie)
  36. Reuben, 53 (3-way tie)
  37. Daniel, 52
  38. Adam, 51 (tie)
  39. Alexander, 51 (tie)
  40. George, 50 (tie)
  41. Odhran, 50 (tie)
  42. Ezra, 49 (3-way tie)
  43. Liam, 49 (3-way tie)
  44. Matthew, 49 (3-way tie)
  45. Arlo, 48 (3-way tie)
  46. Cian, 48 (3-way tie)
  47. Henry, 48 (3-way tie)
  48. Daire, 47 (3-way tie)
  49. Jonah, 47 (3-way tie)
  50. Sean, 47 (3-way tie)

Grace and James were also the #1 names in 2022, but both dipped to third place in 2023.

The highest climbers within the girls’ top 100 in 2024 were Maya, Maria, Eliza, and Ayla.

And the highest climbers within the boys’ top 100 were Austin, Rossa, Callum, and Joseph.

Finally, here’s a small selection of the names that were given to just three babies each last year:

  • Rare girl names: Aodhla, Cuisle, Doireann, Etain, Neala, Orlagh, Tierna
  • Rare boy names: Ainle, Con, Dualtagh, Eamon, Feilim, Lir, Oilibhear

Cuisle, the Irish word for “pulse,” is thematically similar to the trendy girl name Croia, which is based on croí, the Irish word for “heart.” Croia currently ranks 26th and 16th in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, respectively.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2024

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

Last year, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar welcomed 331 babies — 148 baby girls and 183 baby boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia for girls and Noah/Thomas (tie) for boys.

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Olivia, 5 baby girls
  2. Emilia, 4
  3. Matilda and Zara, 3 each (tie)

Boy names

  1. Noah and Thomas, 5 baby boys each (tie)
  2. Luca and Sebastian, 4 each (tie)
  3. Leon, Liam, Oliver, Ryan, Theo, and Tommy, 3 each (6-way tie)

The name Jamie was also given to three babies, but my source didn’t include much information on gender, so I don’t know if these three babies were boys, girls, or a mix of both.

The 36 names given to two babies each were Addison, Alexander, Annabelle, Arabella, Ariana, Axel, Celine, Charles, Emily, Emma, Enzo, Evan, George, Hugo, Jacob, Jesse, Julia, Kai, Kylian, Leo, Lucia, Luna, Maisie, Mia, Michael, Mila, Nicolas, Riley, Robyn, Romeo, Romy, Salma, Sofia, Stella, Thiago, and Zack.

And the 200+ names bestowed just once in Gibraltar last year were…

Adah, Adam, Adonis, Aiden, Aidon, Ajay, Alba, Albert, Aleia, Alesia, Alessandro, Alice, Alistair, Amara, Amber, Amelia, Amina, Amine, Amoura, Ana, Anas, Anaya, Andrew, Antonio, Archie, Aria, Arianna, Arley, Arlo, Arthur, Ava, Aya, Ayla, Azaria, Bella, Billy, Blake, Bodhi, Brenda, Caleb, Callie, Camden, Cara, Catharine, Cecilia, Charlie, Charlotte, Christian, Cleo, Connor, Cora, Danah, Daniella, Darcie, Darcy, Delilah, Duyna, Dylan, Edward, Eladio, Elena, Elia, Elian, Elias, Ella, Elliot, Ellis, Elowyn, Elton, Eric, Esmae, Esteban, Everleigh, Evie, Ezra, Frankie, Freya, Furkan, Gabriella, Geremiah, Gia, Gigi, Giorgia, Giorgio, Grace, Gracie, Hadley, Halo, Hannah, Haroun, Harper, Harry, Haven, Henry, Hudson, Ian, Inaaya, Inaya, Isabella, Isadora, Isla, Islam, Ivy, Jack, Jae, Jake, James, Jason, Javier, Jax, Jay, Jaylan, Joylisa, Jude, Jules, Kaine, Kallie, Katie, Kenzie, Kenzo, Khylo, Koby, Kody, Lara, Laurie, Lee, Lewis, Lilliana, Liya, Lorena, Louis, Luciano, Luke, Maeve, Manxin, Marcel, Martin, Mason, Matthew, Max, Milan, Millie, Mollie, Moshe, Mya, Myla, Naia, Naiomi, Naira, Nariah, Nellie, Niall, Nicola, Nylah, Osayd, Peter, Posie, Rachel, Rafaella, Ralfs, Ramy, Rayan, Reign, Reuven, Rian, Rina, Rio, Roan, Robbie, Robert, Roman, Rosa, Rose, Rotem, Ruairi, Ruben, Ruhe, Rupert, Sarah, Scarlett, Sean, Seth, Shashana, Shivika, Sophia, Sophie, Spencer, Sunny, Sykes, Talia, Tassim, Theodore, Tiana, Timothy, Tobias, Tristan, Tyler, Valentina, Victor, Yaakov, Zachary, Zayd, Zoe, Zyna, Zyon

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2023 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Source: “Thomas, Noah & Olivia the most popular baby names in 2024.” GBC News 25 Mar. 2025.

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)