Etymology & Historical Origin of the Baby Name Deshawn

DeShawn is a name created by African-Americans in the 1970s and probably one of the most identifiably “Black” masculine names in the United States (what Shaniqua is for girls). Shortly after the Civil Rights Movement and coinciding with a period of time when Black National Pride was soaring, African-Americans made some fundamental shifts in their naming practices. While traditional names continued to be common, Blacks also adopted Arabic and African names in keeping with their roots; they also began inventing completely new names through the combination of appealing sounds. DeShawn is one such example of this naming style. The name was created from the popular “De-“ prefix (e.g., DeAndre, DeMarcus) plus the English name Shawn (which is an anglicized form of Sean, the Irish equivalent of John). So it’s fair to say that DeShawn is the African-American version of the age-old traditional English name John (which ultimately comes from the Hebrew and means “God is gracious”). Keshawn, Tyshawn and Zeshawn are similar sounding names.

All About the Baby Name – Deshawn

Personality

OF THE BOY NAME DESHAWN

The number 11 is a Master Number, and embodies heightened traits of the Two. This personality is on a life journey to find spiritual truth. They are extremely idealistic and intuitive. Elevens have a rare and exceptional spiritual energy that brings a sense of obligation to illuminate the world around them. It's a very powerful responsibility, but these people have far more potential than they know. It's important that they surrender to higher ideals. They have the capacity to see the bigger picture, and they possess the skills to inspire others spiritually. Elevens have strong diplomatic skills and can become great peacemakers. Master numbers can be both a blessing and a curse, as they walk the fine line between greatness and the potential for self-destruction.

Popularity

OF THE BOY NAME DESHAWN

DeShawn made his debut on the American naming charts in 1971 and reached his peak usage in 1994 at position #408. While this is considered pretty low moderation it’s actually quite remarkable given the name is generally restricted to African-Americans (which represent about 13% of the population). So within the Black community itself, DeShawn is a very successful name. Since the late 1990s, however, Deshawn started to fall from style and is now down to levels of pretty low usage. Hotter today among African-Americans are names like Demarco, Deon, Darius and Malik. In fact, Dashawn, Keshawn, Tyshawn and Zeshawn all recently fell off the American naming charts so old DeShawn is the last of his “Shawn” brethren to survive.

Quick Facts

ON DESHAWN

GENDER:

Boy

ORIGIN:

African-American

NUMBER OF SYLLABLES:

2

RANKING POPULARITY:

819

PRONUNCIATION:

dә-SHAWN

SIMPLE MEANING:

God is gracious (variant of Shawn/John)

Characteristics

OF DESHAWN

Inspirational

Highly Intuitive

Spiritual Teacher

Extremely Bright

Uplifting

Truth-seeker

Cultural References to the Baby Name – Deshawn

Literary Characters

OF THE BABY NAME DESHAWN

Childrens Books

ON THE BABY NAME DESHAWN

We cannot find any childrens books with the first name Deshawn


Popular Songs

ON DESHAWN

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Famous People

NAMED DESHAWN

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Children of Famous People

NAMED DESHAWN

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Historic Figures

WITH THE NAME DESHAWN

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